Rajkummar Rao, Jiiva star in Rapido's latest IPL campaign

It's not everyday that an employee tells his boss off for being late. Punctuality is one of the selling points of Bengaluru-based bike taxi aggregator Rapido's latest Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign.

Titled, Ekdum Aaram Se (#EkdumAaramSe), the Hindi and Bengali versions of the ads feature actor Rajkummar Rao. The Tamil and Telugu versions feature actor Jiiva (of 83 fame).

The second phase of the campaign focuses on imparting awareness among intra-city travellers on Rapido’s services as well as a return-to-office scenario. The ads aim to improve daily commuting and enhance Rapido’s brand awareness in India.

The ads have been directed by Amar Kaushik, and produced by Magix Engage and Dream Vault Media House. Enormous Brands is the creative agency behind the ads. The integrated marketing campaign will be released across channels such as television, digital and OOH, for audiences in metros, as well as Tier-I and II cities.

Commenting on the second phase, Amit Verma, head of marketing, Rapido, said, “The latest ads have been devised to establish Rapido as an alternative mode of transport in India. We received an overwhelming response for our first campaign and have launched the next phase featuring two more crowd favorites – Rajkummar Rao and Jiiva.”

“We will keep the momentum going by launching more phases during the IPL. With two new teams introduced this season, the competition is expected to become more intense and, thus, will generate higher viewership than usual.”

Rapido's first campaign was released in November 2021 and featured Bollywood celebrity Ranveer Singh and Telugu actor Allu Arjun. For the first campaign, Rapido set aside approximately $20 million for the two months of IPL campaigns. Most of it was for television (65 per cent), followed by outdoor (15-18 per cent) and digital plus OTT, which not only includes Disney+ Hotstar, but also other platforms like MX Player and ZEE5.

Rapido was co-founded by Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli and Rishikesh SR in 2015. It is currently operational in 100-plus cities, with over 15 lakh registered 'captains'. In an earlier interview, Verma told afaqs! that its TG is largely male (90 per cent) in the age group of 20-28 years.

Over 65 per cent of its business comes from top eight cities, mostly metros, followed by state capitals (25-30 per cent), and Tier-II and III towns (10 per cent). Though they are not very well off, they tend to have a high affinity towards watching cricket - that's why the brand advertises a lot on cricketing properties. It advertised during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup and the India-Sri Lanka series in 2021.