As unlocking begins in most cities, Rapido urges people to step out only when necessary

• Rapido’s latest campaign poses questions to users to choose between essential and expendable needs.
• #ZarooriHaiKya campaign aims to drive mindfulness towards the essential services workers at risk during the pandemic.

Rapido, bike taxi platform, today announced the launch of its new digital marketing campaign #ZarooriHaiKya. The social good campaign takes the consumers through different scenarios of customers using delivery, ride sharing or home services during the pandemic in a witty format. The campaign aims to drive awareness on how essential services like home deliveries, ride-sharing and home services should be used responsibly in the pandemic. It is built as a homage to the efforts of various driving, delivery, and service partners who have been working tirelessly to make sure that people like us survive through the lockdown, even at the cost of their lives.

The #ZarooriHaiKya campaign takes a dig at the times people celebrate expendable days, prodding them to rethink their decisions. Roz ki roses wali anniversary manana, #ZaroorihaiKya, calling for a home salon service or ordering unnecessary items like footwear, work pants when you are working from home, or visiting the gym at this time, etc. is all that important, to risk a driver or delivery partner’s life, as he sets out during the pandemic. As unlocking begins in most of the cities, Rapido takes a bold stance asking people to step out only when necessary, despite being the largest bike taxi player in the country.


Announcing the campaign, Amit Verma, Head of Marketing, Rapido, said, “The idea to do such a responsible marketing campaign stemmed from the consumer behavior seen across the country during the pandemic. Accelerating our delivery service or promoting our bike taxi services may be beneficial to us, but at Rapido, we also feel responsible for the lives of our Captains and essential delivery partners. As the nation prepares for unlock, we want to urge everyone to act responsibly and think about the frontline warriors. Through #ZarooriHaiKya, we would like to plead to the sensibilities of our users to not book that ride, to not ask your friend to deliver that item, to not call home services guys to fix a thing that you do not need at the moment, and thereby saving someone’s life.”

The campaign and storyline were conceptualized in-house, the script was written by Enormous Brands and brought to life by a budding production house with new and aspiring talent. The company will also be driving two more shoulder campaigns like a Bahana generator, to generate curiosity and engagement with the users on their social media platforms.

Rapido has announced a $20Mn budget for this year’s bullish focus on its marketing efforts. With the second wave of the pandemic continuing to wreak havoc in the country, Rapido wants to do every bit to break the chain, in their own way and help professionals who are putting themselves in harm’s way so that people can lead a comfortable life at home. It could be the driver partners, home service executives, delivery executives, etc. The company recently started a Captain Vaccination Drive in the country where the first camp was held in Chennai through a collaboration with the Chennai City Corporation. It hopes to expand to all the 100 cities Rapido is present in, through more such partnerships soon.