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.

Once Rexona decided they wanted to approach movement with a new lens, they turned to technology to solve the problem with an everyday app for people with disabilities.

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

Previously there were two primary problems facing people with disabilities. One, there was no dedicated database of places with accessibility information. If someone were to make a search for a place, they had no way to telling if they could access it. Secondly, accessible transportation to this place was not readily available.

Rexona was focused on bridging these gaps.The Gerak app built the first accessible database in Indonesia. With a simple voice command, users could find the most accessible place (i.e. restaurant, mosque, shopping center) in their area. Once they picked a place, they could order an accessible ride, directly

To bring the Gerak app to life, Rexona struck two key partnerships. Rexona built the Gerak app under the guidance of Google and its Voice API and Dialogflow technologies. Its Grab partnership enabled the Gerak app to deliver accessible rides to app users.

Gerak is a voice powered app, that helps users find accessible places in their direct vicinity. To power this app, Rexona needed Google technology. Bahasa is the primary language in Indonesia. Google and its machine learning capabilities ensured that users could speak to the voice bot in their natural language and that their speech could be automatically translated.

Next, Rexona partnered with Grab, SE Asia’s largest ride-hailing app, to launch GrabGerak. This service enabled Rexona to offer accessible rides to people directly through the Gerak app. Users could find an accessible restaurant and immediately get a ride. This was not possible before.

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.