EsportsXO’s April Fools’ Day campaign – ‘Kyun? Nahi Ho RHA Kya!’ tackles rage and anxiety issues in gaming with humour
April Fools’ Day has become an increasingly popular marketing opportunity.
Considering that we are still in the global pandemic, this April Fools’ Day, EsportsXO tackled a sensitive subject through a humorous campaign. Reports suggest that explosive behaviour and rage while gaming pose a threat to mental health and is increasingly becoming a matter of concern within the gaming community. EsportsXO decided to address this serious issue through the prism of humour. EsportsXO’s April Fool’s day campaign – ‘Kyun? Nahi Ho RHA Kya!’ humorously talks about rage, anxiety and anger issues while playing video games. The video introduces a hypothetical drink that curbs [not cures] rage in a sip: The NHK drink. NHK is derived from a phrase in the gaming world, Kyu Nahi Hora Kya, and is often used by players to provoke in-game opponents.
EsportsXO is India’s biggest community of gamers, professional esports players, tournament organisers and esports fans. EsportsXO is a SaaS-based tournament discovery platform for over 600 million passionate competitive players across the globe.
A teaser post, partially revealing the product, was posted on 29th March on their Instagram, which created hype and kindled curiosity amongst the audience. Finally, on Thursday, 31st March 2022, EsportsXO launched the energy drink, which would help gamers control their anger while playing. The social posts on all platforms were an instant hit, and the video received 11K plus views in the first 60 minutes of sharing. The campaign has gone viral with 50K plus views and going up as on April 1, 2022.
Vikas Goel, Co-Founder, EsportsXO said, “Rage affects the performance, whether it is in-game or off-game. Through this campaign, we wanted to highlight how toxicity is a barrier to a gamer’s growth. Let us all be CALM and grow more.”
With this clever campaign, the brand shared a more powerful message and initiated much-needed discussion within the gaming industry. It’s true that stress related to competitive gaming may escalate already existing anxiety or anger management issues. In June 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) included gaming disorder as a mental health condition in the ICD-11. Gaming disorder is generally characterized by not being able to control gaming, increased priority being given to gaming when compared to daily routine and the presence of negative consequences. Many countries, such as China and the UK, have even taken steps to control rage related to gaming.
With this April Fools’ Day campaign, EsportsXO is sending a message that we need to talk about anger and anxiety, raise awareness about the mental health of gamers, and find solutions to better health.
A video featuring Vikas Goel-Co-Founder, Utsav Umang-CEO, Rohit Raj-COO and Aryan Vibhute-Head of Content was posted where the 4 have given a strong message the campaign is trying to convey i.e: “Don’t let gaming take control of your emotions.”
