URI: The Surgical Strike Creates Buzz With Netizens Through PUBG

Movie promotions broke new ground when URI: The Surgical Strike, produced by RSVP (Ronnie Screwvala Productions) Movies, became the first Indian movie to join hands with PUBG Mobile to launch a surgical strike on Pochinki, one of the largest and most popular towns in the game’s maps.

The event, which was conceptualized and deployed by Publicis Entertainment, took place on 6 January 2019 with a large number of PUBG enthusiasts taking part.

Summary

Talking about the decision for the tie-up with the game, Pashan Jal, Marketing Head RSVP, said “The movie and the game were a natural fit as both are based on teamwork, precision, survival skills, remote communication, and strategy. What’s more the game has players being airdropped into Pochinki, just like our para commandos who did the surgical strike. With Uri: The Surgical Strike being the first big release of 2019 and PUBG Mobile being one of the top games in the world, we thought this was a match made in entertainment heaven. We feel proud that it is the first Indian film to tie-up with the game.”

Pranay Anthwal, Executive Director, Publicis Entertainment, said, “We have always tried to push the envelope when it comes to movie promotions. So, when RSVP movies gave us the brief for Uri, we knew that a regular installation or a fan-interaction activity won’t cut it. Our challenge was to dial up the surgical strike and the gameplay on PUBG was completely in sync with the action in the movie. And since millions already play the game, we thought of getting Vicky Kaushal, the lead of the movie, to play the game and talk us through the experience of making the movie.”

Speaking about the activity, Saurabh Mankhand, Vice President & Business Lead of the Campaign said, “The brief was clear – dial up the mission and help fans experience a para commando’s journey during the strike. Through our research, we found out that PUBG Mobile was a platform that matched most of our requirements. The gameplay resembled a surgical strike – being airdropped into danger, strategizing survival, teamwork, combat style – and thus was a natural fit. To further amplify the activity, we got Vicky Kaushal to play the game live with the top gamers, and other players who were selected through a contest. 

Execution

Our activity spanned over 3 days:-

Day 1 – The Strike Back Contest
PUBG India hosted a day-long contest for the players to showcase their “PUBG Kills” by sharing a screenshot of a completed session. 4 Lucky winners were given a chance to play along with Vicky Kaushal.

Day 2 – Register to play with Vicky Kaushal

We released an announcement video with Vicky talking about playing a session on PUBG India. This was sent along with a Call-out for players to register for the session so they get an opportunity to compete with Vicky and his team. The content was pushed across all social platforms of RSVP and PUBG.

Activity Day 

To keep the momentum of the activity going, we created a few promotional videos with Vicky to boost the activity. The video content was pushed through the RSVP, PUBG’s Social Platforms. Leading PUBG Gamers – CarryMinati, Mortal, and Shriman Legend also promoted it to garner maximum reach and eyeballs for the campaign.

The event saw Vicky going head-to-head with the registered players for three rounds on the unique terrain of Pochinki. CarryMinati aided him in his surgical strike for the first two rounds, while Mortal joined him in the third. The entire activity was livestreamed by RSVP, PUBG Mobile India, and the gamers across YouTube and Facebook.

Result

The results were as spellbinding as the build-up. Fans were excited to see their favorite actor performing a virtual surgical strike live while also talking about his experience of the movie Uri: The Surgical Strike. The gaming community were more eager about the activity, which got them to witness highly revered gamers displaying their skills live with Vicky.

Views of LiveStream

• Total Views – 300,307+

Participation

• Registrations – 13,000+

Engagement

• Impressions – 10,53,190+