Rexona is the Indonesian deodorant market leader and for years its brand DNA has been focused on helping people move. Rexona looked to expand the idea of movement beyond physical exercise and give its “Terus Gerak” (keep moving) slogan new meaning.

Movement for Movement’s objective was to lead with purpose, break free from typical deodorant communications, and drive real impact for Indonesians by focusing on those who need help to move the most - people with disabilities. This digital only campaign was a first of its kind for Rexona and took a modest budget under $500,000 USD and turned it into a nationwide movement.

By tackling one of Indonesia’s underserved problems; mobility for people with disabilities, Rexona was able to drive tangible change with its Gerak app. Rexona was also able to demonstrate that purpose can coalesce leaders in technology and media for real good.

Strong economic growth has lead to Indonesia’s rapid urbanization. Only 7 percent of Jakarta’s roads have sidewalks, but this is changing as development is abundant everywhere. However, this expansion has neglected Indonesians with disabilities, who are being left behind when it comes to inclusive infrastructure.

True to its brand DNA, Rexona used this insight to develop the idea for its Gerak app, Indonesia’s first ever voice-activated mobility assistant app. Gerak users could ask the app to find them the most accessible locations in their given area and with its Grab partnership (SE Asia’s leading ride hailing app) get an accessible ride.

With the app and the first ever database of accessible places at its core, Rexona developed its creative strategy around informing all Indonesians of this problem and building a grassroots movement, encouraging everyone to make Indonesia more accessible.

Rexona ensured people with disabilities would no longer be an afterthought.

Rexona had no interest in creating a traditional corporate social responsibility campaign. Once the brand decided they wanted to approach movement with a new lens, they turned to technology to solve the problem. Not just talk about it.

Knowing hands free voice search is on the rise, Rexona chose to build its voice-activated mobility assistant app.

However, Rexona faced a unique strategic challenge. The Gerak app was built for a very niche audience. To make a real impact, Rexona had to come up with a strategy to reach more than just people with disabilities.

Previously there was no dedicated database of places with accessibility information. To get more people involved with the campaign, Rexona had to connect with all Indonesians, and implore them to make their country more accessible.

All of the campaign’s supporting media was designed to bring the problem to light and for all Indonesians to take action.

To execute such an ambitious plan with its limited budget, Rexona struck four key partnerships to help achieve its campaign objectives.

The innovative Gerak app was built in partnership with Google, its Voice API and Dialogue Flow technology. This technology helped people with disabilities find accessible places through voice search.

Rexona partnered with Grab to launch GrabGerak. This enabled Rexona to offer accessible rides, with trained drivers, to people through Gerak. Users could find an accessible restaurant, immediately get a ride. This was not possible before.

To spark awareness, Rexona partnered with Vice, for its investigative journalism, to publish a docu-series driving awareness of the day-to-day difficulties people with disabilities endure. These videos featured para-athletes and balanced emotion and education to make able-bodied Indonesians understand this underserved problem.

This transitioned right into Rexona’s sponsorship of the Asian Para-Games where GrabGerak drivers were waiting to greet para-athletes from across Asia.

Rexona’s Movement for Movement’s campaign successfully helped raise awareness around the difficulties Indonesians with disabilities face everyday as well as drive long-lasting change.

Rexona reached 60.52 million people when it launched the Gerak app and its $1 million USD worth of PR value was a 54x return on its launch investment.

Rexona’s Vice docu-series exceeded expectations by 62%, as it was viewed 5.5 million times. Rexona’s three other mobile videos for the campaign combined for 15.4 million views, more than twice the expected benchmark.

Within the first 90 days of the app being live, Gerak was the #1 trending app in the “Travel and Local” category in the Google Play Store and nearly 20,000 GrabGerak rides were requested.

Most importantly, brand ad recall went up by 5%, best in class for the FMCG category, and earned a 150% uplift on brand interest.