The India Shining campaign lost because it was never designed to be an election campaign in the first place

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But ask Prathap Suthan, then National Creative Director of Grey Worldwide (now with Cheil Communications) and the guy who coined the India Shining slogan, and he’s quick to rebuff the argument. “The India Shining campaign lost because it was never designed to be an election campaign in the first place,” he says, explaining that the Ministry of Finance had commissioned the campaign to boost investor confidence in India. Once the campaign aired, BJP went to polls in four states and won in three of them. Suthan says that party insiders latched on to the by then very popular campaign for the looming General Elections 2004.

Congress’s planned rebuttal also played havoc with the campaign. Conceived by Orchard Advertising (affiliated to Leo Burnett) Congress’s ‘aam aadmi ke liye’ positioning worked. “BJP’s India Shining failed miserably. Congress changed its positioning from a party for the poor man (remember garibi hatao?) to a party for the common man,” avers KV Sridhar, National Creative Director, Leo Burnett India. Congress even hired a separate media planning agency – Starcom, which literally burnt midnight oil to ensure maximum impact on voters. Explains Anita Nayyar, then at the helm of Starcom India, “The last 6-8 weeks in the run up to elections were highly focused. We coined different campaigns for each state. Burning issues were taken up and party’s point of view was put forward.”

The 2004 elections have conclusively proved to our netas that the India Shining campaign may not have worked, but political marketing complete with full-on advertising blitz, technological innovations and selling tactics is here to stay. Little wonder that with less than a year left to D-day, the run up to the voting booths has already begun for Elections 2009.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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