Behind Mahindra’s buzz-led digital launches with Rajesh Jejurikar

As marketing continues to navigate rapid digital disruption, some voices are calling for a return to fundamentals. At e4m TechManch 2025, Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director & CEO (Auto and Farm Sector), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., delivered a compelling keynote that challenged the over-reliance on data and technology in modern marketing. 

“As long as we are marketing to human beings, emotion will matter. Insights, not just data, build brands,” he emphasized, laying the foundation for a talk that questioned current digital dogmas while celebrating the enduring power of emotional intelligence in marketing strategy.

Sharing insights from the launch of Thar, Jejurikar said: “We have stopped using mainstream media. Our strategy is to use a lot of influencers, create a lot of buzz, and sell out on the day of the launch.” He revealed that the company now leans entirely on digital-first strategies, eschewing mainstream media in favour of influencer-led buzz and real-time consumer anticipation.

Jejurikar’s candid insights set the tone for a session that peeled back the curtain on Mahindra’s digital-first, insight-led brand building strategy, while challenging the marketing industry’s obsession with data-driven tactics alone. In a room full of marketers and tech leaders, he reminded the audience that emotion and human insight still sit at the heart of brand resonance and category creation.

Taking the audience through the genesis of Mahindra’s brand pivot, Jejurikar traced it back to 2020 when the company defined its brand purpose as: “Life is an adventure, live it boldly while caring for our planet.” This insight, that people were craving freedom and escape more than practicality, formed the basis of a bold bet: to make adventure readiness the core of Mahindra’s SUV play, starting with the Thar 3-door.

“At the time, the Thar was doing 400 units a month. Most optimistic projections were around 900. But today, we do over 10,000 units a month between the Thar and Thar RWD,” he said. Mahindra’s big swing was not just in product design, but in launching it during the COVID-19 lockdown on August 15, 2020, with a “Freedom Drive” media activation. “The idea of exploration had become more powerful than ever. And the Thar became a vehicle to make that happen,” he noted.

Jejurikar emphasized how the success of the Thar laid the foundation for Mahindra’s full pivot to non-traditional launch formats. With the Thar ROXX launch in 2024, the company leaned entirely into digital and influencer buzz, culminating in a dramatic rock concert reveal featuring Farhan Akhtar. “You almost see no follow-up campaigns from us for one or two years after launch, we don’t need them,” he said, underscoring how buzz-led digital launches are built to sell out on day one.

This same approach was scaled further during the Unlimit India launch campaign for Mahindra’s electric SUVs in November 2024. Facing lukewarm consumer sentiment around EVs, the company decided to position the launch not as a product release but as “India taking on the world”, reframing it as a moment of national pride and ambition.

The three-phase campaign, teasers, reveal, and post-launch, generated staggering results. According to Jejurikar, Mahindra recorded 2.1 billion+ digital views, 2,600+ content pieces, and millions in live engagement, all without mainstream media. During the launch phase alone, the campaign drew 16M+ webcast views, 2.5 lakh concurrent views on X, and was picked up by over 150 media platforms organically.

“Focus on the big idea that comes from insight. Everything else follows,” Jejurikar concluded, reinforcing that in a fragmented, content-saturated market, it is still emotion, timing, and conviction, not just algorithms. That makes people care.

Jejurikar described his approach as the “anti-house view”, not because he dismissed digital, but because he placed deeper value on insight-led thinking as the real fuel behind big ideas. He cited books like Sensemaking and Same as Ever to argue that in a world obsessed with algorithms, marketers risk losing sight of the core human truths that actually shape behavior. “We are not marketing to robots yet,” he quipped, “and human beings still need emotion and logic.” According to him, insights that go beyond research, insights that combine strategy, culture, and instinct, are what truly anchor breakthrough campaigns.