Heetch and Rapper Kool Shen Share a Love Letter to Paris Suburbs

Porte d'Ivry. Porte de Clichy. Porte d'Italie. The gates of the ring road linking Paris and the suburbs often have a bad reputation. To those unaware of their major role within the metropolis, they are simply 'ugly', 'dirty' or 'too far away'. And yet, on a daily basis, they let millions of inhabitants from the Paris region to exchange, meet up and move around, or simply go from point A to point B.

With over 80% of its journeys coming from or going to the suburbs, Heetch is the ride-sharing app that goes through all these gates and knows them better than anyone. That's why the brand is paying tribute to them, and launching a sunny, committed campaign to sublimate these too-often maligned environments. The aim? To show that these gates have, above all, a mission: to let all the worlds that live behind them, and on either side, to meet.

“This film is in line with the launch of our ‘Proud sponsor of the suburbs’ brand platform, where each film, each activation must present the suburbs in a new light. Here, we're using a powerful symbol, the ring road that separates Paris Intramuros from all the surrounding suburbs. The gates that make up the ring road are worlds, opportunities and chances to be seized... It's this openness that Heetch aims to embody,” explains Olivier Aumard, executive creative director, and Mathieu Laugier, general manager of BETC Paris.

The campaign, conceived by ad agency BETC Paris, was directed by Laura Marciano in collaboration with ASWAN. And to tell the story of all these gates and the people who cross them every day, Heetch called on a rap legend in the person of KOOL SHEN. His voice, recognizable to all fans of the genre, is set to a beat inspired by a 90s hip-hop classic, produced by SULLY SEFIL.

“Last year, we attacked the media's treatment of the suburbs, but this year we wanted to get closer to the field, to our business: our driver partners and customers pass through these gates every day. Reminding everyone of the role they play in creating social links, far from caricatures, is a poetic but also almost political way of reminding people of our role as a brand,” explains Renaud Berthe, chief marketing officer of Heetch.

This strong statement will be broadcast in cinema and digitally from June 3rd, 2024. A print campaign throughout the Île-de-France region will reinforce the message, highlighting the vital importance of these gates for the inhabitants of the Greater Paris... as well as for those of the Greater Saint-Denis, the Greater Bondy and the Greater Vitry.