The year's 2023. A full blown turf war is on in the Indian motorcycling world.
Legacy players are dominating every street corner. Foreign players are trickling in by the hour.
Enter TVS Ronin. A modern-retro motorcycle, with the legacy of a commuter bike.
Popularise a first-of-its-kind motorcycle for a generation of fluidic, experimental and dynamic new riders.
A motorcycle is more than a machine. The right motorcycle is a cult leader, preaching a new way of life.
We were out to make a cult and the only way was to lead by example.
So we designed the world's first unscripted campaign, built purely on instinct and impulse than roadmaps and wireframes. This is the story of the 365 days, when a Ronin fought for every inch of terrain of the moto-world.
· Copy · Creative Direction · Social Strategy · IP & Campaign Development
AGENCY: TBWA | DIRECTION: ANTHONY KARBHARI |
PH: QED FILMS | IMAGES: GAURAV MISHRA PHOTOGRAPHY
a part of the riding community's identity. We grew #Unscripted into a lifestyle. A philosophy for over 100000 Ronins. Today it has its own annual music festival and the bike's been launched in over
7 countries worldwide. The brand continues to grow from strength to strength.
So how did the new team create such a tight-knit community of brand loyalists in a brief period of time?
We started by identifying a pop culture icon who was the perfect blend of modern and retro just like TVS Ronin.
Someone famous for going off-script. Whose classic style and modern technique reminded us of a Ronin in flesh & blood. Someone who moves to his own tune. Lives life #unscripted.
Even something as tactical as a "test-ride was gamified and turned into an "unscripted experience".
Word of mouth from it started to earn significant street-cred for the bike.
Only 5 of these were ever made and handed over to cricket fans who scored the highest
in their debut test-ride cricket match.
We approached it from the vision of building this into an annual rider's pitstop.
A ritual for every Ronin out there to end the year on a high.
A playground for Ronins to ride their bikes to. An excuse for them to plan that ever elusive bike ride with their pack. Meet fellow Ronins. Engage in a rider's playground. Enjoy a modern-retro music fest for 2 whole days in Goa.
Starting with "Ronin Love Language".
When you're a rider, you feel emotions that go beyond words in the English dictionary. So on Valentines-Day, Ronins coined new words to describe their many indescribable motorcycling emotions.
Creating a whole new language for Ronin riders to express motorcycling emotion,
that went far beyond existing words in the English language.
During the cricket world cup when the official sponsors opened the floodgates of their marketing budgets, we did the exact opposite. We capitalised
on being the unofficial sponsor by composing the "unofficial anthem"
of the Cricket World Cup 24. All with our rider's comments and zero marketing spends.
The internet has rap ID generators, DJ name generators, even baby name generators.
But nothing to provide riders an identity for themselves. So on World Emoji Day,
we converted our IG page to a "Ride ID generator".
Directed this one for International Men's Day.
This raked in millions of views, thousands of likes, comments and shares
Found occasions to tell stories that were untold.
Bring the female rider to the limelight in a male dominated category.
and carousels, every interaction with the riders preached the gospel of #Unscripted.
Followers would regularly tune into the page to find inspiration
for rides, captions and even ideas for their own riding page.
helping us connect with our audience at a deeper level.
our paid content started fishing for new audience in uncharted waters.
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and decided to base their own modified designs, using Ronin as the canvas.
In terms of the business, the motorcycle sold a steady 2000-2200 units a month and is only looking to go upwards.
It gave tough competition to bikes such as the RE Hunter, Jawa 42 and Honda CB 350.
Follow the TVS Ronin handle to spread the lore further.
