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Recognising the hyper-connected reality of the era, ‘HyperTaskers’ celebrated ageneration that is future-ready, tech- savvy, and values every nanosecond of its time, focusing on engagement across digital and social media platforms.
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Multiple brand launches, back to back ad campaigns and creating content — for OnePlus, 2020 can only be described as ‘exceedingly busy’. Siddhanth Narayan, who took charge of the marketing mandate at the company at the beginning of the year, drew out a plan that put technology at the core and creativity first in engaging its consumers. The year was important for OnePlus per se. In March 2020, it refreshed its visual identity, including a new logo. The marked the most significant change to the OnePlus brand since its inception in December 2013, reinforcing the spirit of ‘Never Settle’.
Hyping Up Hyper
In the time that followed, OnePlus dabbled in several campaigns. In April 2020, aligning with the OnePlus 8 series launch, it launched the ‘HyperTaskers’ campaign. Recognising the hyper-connected reality of the era, ‘HyperTaskers’ celebrated ageneration that is future-ready, tech- savvy, and values every nanosecond of its time, focusing on engagement across digital and social media platforms.
OnePlus TV products also saw a flurry of media activities. One of this deployed augmented reality (AR) for consumers to virtually experience OnePlus TV. Narayan had said at the time that this was in line with the company’s pursuit of “innovative avenues powered by technology”. He explained, “We utilise these avenues to provide our community with new, engaging experiences that help fulfil our consumers’ demands.”
The Real Stories
Content played an integral part in OnePlus’s marketing playbook. The leading piece in this was a documentary titled, ‘United by Hope’. Produced by VICE Media, the documentary was shot on OnePlus. It narrated 12 authentic stories of individuals from different walks of life, “aligning with OnePlus’ community focus”.
The cast included personalities such as actor, author and anchor Kubbra Sait; Indian cricketer, Dinesh Karthik; former Captain of Indian football team, Bhaichung Bhutia, and actor Richa Chadha.
“When we at OnePlus began the United by Hope project, we wanted to capture the change in people’s lives from the pandemic, perhaps humanity’s greatest pause in the recent era. As we continued documenting, our creative effort went on to showcase how the true strength of a united community prevails in these challenging times,” Narayan said.
In October 2020, OnePlus released a film titled, ‘Stop at Nothing’. Starring Kalki Koechlin and produced by Lightstream, this film too was shot on the OnePlus 8T 5G, coinciding with the products official unveil.
Interestingly, this film underlined the downsides of being hyper- connected and highlighted the need to disconnect. It reiterated the originally intended use of technology and digital platforms, which is to create, connect and collaborate. OnePlus dubbed this as its call for “digital consciousness”.
Looking at the past year, and commenting on being named among BW Top 50 Marketers 2021, Narayan says, “This one is purely for the team. Last year was very challenging for our brand, and it is full credit to the OnePlus team, this is young, fearless and bold, taking amazing steps, and doing multiple launches. Much credit also goes to our community who showed immense faith is us from the beginning."