Background: Battlegrounds Mobile India (known as PUBG worldwide) is an extremely popular game amongst the youth. But unfortunately, all that popularity was also perceived as notoriety among a different set of stakeholders - namely the parents. Battlegrounds Mobile India had to address these perceptions both in terms of action and communication.
They brought change by introducing a 3-hour gaming limit that requires a one-time password from a parent to continue. But we ran the risk of making the game seem restrictive and pedantic. So the communication needed to find that sweet spot. And we found that in humour.

Idea: The film tells the story of the long-suffering family of a gamer. We see all the tribulations they're put through and the relentless and disruptive assault of sound they're subjected to. We see individual members go through their own disruptions, before telling their parents that their suffering is coming to an end because now, young gamers cannot game for more than 3 hours without a One Time Password (OTP). We've represented the gamer's nonstop gaming sounds with a quirky beatboxing style machine-gun mouth.

A key challenge was to strike a balance between a fun, sticky message that also conveys the game features and culture we set out to communicate. Importantly, it was imperative for the communications to engage our audience while ensuring that the tonality does not come off as preachy.

Execution: The film was launched on YouTube and select television channels in November 2021 and was supported by two other films talking to gamers themselves and the government.
It was also amplified through in-game messaging guiding gamers to the film. And also targeted the parents of gamers through various forums.

Outcome: The film quickly went viral, garnering more than a million views in the first three days and over 12 million in the three months that it has been up. It also showed a very high degree of engagement and positive response from the stakeholders and the gamers themselves.

Battlegrounds Mobile India - Machine-Gun Mouth

CREDITS

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