Smartphone brand Honor launches ‘rap battle' to promote Honor 9X

Honor, the smartphone brand, recently announced the launch of its ‘Honor rap battle’ campaign with a series of rap videos created exclusively for its latest smartphone – Honor 9X.

Performed by various budding rap artists, the videos talk about how the smartphone is ‘Xtraordinary’ in the market and highlights various features of the latest Honor 9X in a rap style.

The campaign is conceptualised and executed by Mullen Lintas.

Targeted at young Indians, who believe in expressing their thoughts, opinions and views openly to the world, the ‘Honor rap battle’ is an engaging activity conceptualised by Honor India.

The ‘Honor rap battle’ videos highlight key features of the Honor 9X in rap style. In order to encompass social media and its users with ‘Xtra fun’ and entertainment, the videos went live on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, leading to large buzz and engagement with more than 3.3 million views across all the platforms.

To make the ‘Honor rap battle’ initiative more engaging, Honor India also held a contest where the users had to review the Honor 9X smartphone in their own Rap style. Users posted their entries online, tagging Honor India social media handles along with official hashtags — #HONOR9X, #RapBattle and #UpForXtra, to win the latest #HONOR9X. The contest became an instant hit as the #RapBattle trended No. 6 on Twitter with Honor India receiving over 350 entries while additional entries are still pouring in.

The Honor rap battle music was used on TikTok for the #UpForXtra challenge, where users were asked by Honor India to show their ‘Xtraordinary’ talent with the ‘Honor 9X #UpForXtra rap’ playing in the background. The participants had to perform the hook-step of the song created exclusively for the song and tag @HONOR_India and #UpForXtra in their posts. Among the participants, six lucky winners stood a chance to win the latest HONOR 9X. HONOR India received over 4,200 entries for this challenge and views of over 5.7 billion on #UpForExtra hashtag.

Commenting on this brand initiative, Winston Lee, CMO, Honor India, said, “Rap, as a creative form of expression, connects strongly with the young generation. Using Rap to highlight the various ‘Xtraordinary’ features of our latest Honor 9X, furthers our philosophy of building a strong resonance with our consumers and offering them what they truly deserve when it comes to technology.”

“Associating with these budding rappers was a step taken towards putting forth the product proposition in an engaging way. The overwhelming response received from our consumers across social media platforms is a testimony to our assertion,” he added.

Syed Amjad Ali, President, Mullen Lintas, said, “Honor X Series has a legacy of disrupting the market through innovation and technology that gives its users far more value. Its ambition of democratising technology brings yet another innovation, Honor 9X. This was aimed to be a ‘Digital Only’ launch, targeting totally younger people. We at Mullen, instead of trying a formulaic big-bang style, discovered a completely new challenger approach. We introduced the ‘Rap style’ videos for the first time in the mobile category ever. Rap as a medium brings forth the voice of the youth, questioning the established order at the same time. These videos were able to dial up the ‘Xtraordinariness’ and the unique features, making other phones look very ordinary.”

Rap Battle Video 1:

Rap Battle Video 2: