CASE STUDY: Blow Up Campaign To Save Public Property

Social Objective: In a democratic setup everyone has a right to protest. But in our country people often forget their fundamental duty to protect public property. Thus with the idea of promoting the cause of “save public property and abjure violence” IndiaPicture launched the campaign “Blow up” conceptualized and co created by Publicis Capital and supported by iCongo. The novel idea of campaign was to provide potential protestors with free images of public property to burn and vandalize instead of real public property thus using the power of images to convey the message.

Marketing Objective: The central idea of the campaign to use the power of images to safeguard loss of public property is conceptualized based on the core function of IndiaPictures, who are India’s leading photo stock company and come from family legacy of oldest photo studio in Kashmir- The Mahatta’s. If successful, the conceptualiser of this social campaign Publicis India also could utilize this campaign as their nomination in social campaign category to Cannes and other respected advertising fraternity awards. Communication Objective: To create awareness and generate interest about Blow up- an Indiapicture initiative to save public property during protests and agitation, promote the brain behind the campaign namely Dushyant Mehta, CEO IndiaPicture, Emmanuel Upputuru, National Creative Director, Publicis India and also Jeroninio "Jerry" Almeida, Chief Volunteer at ICONGO.

PR Strategy: Channel PR devised a strategy that brings out the central idea of the fundamental duty of saving the public property and using the power of images in providing a unique alternative to minimize the damage to the public property. The concept of ‘Power of Images’ was in-synch with the Brand IndiaPicture – India’s leading photo stock company and the PR campaign was focused to utilize this connection to create a brand value proposition for IndiaPicture.

PR Campaign: The PR campaign’s effort for “Blow Up” was to give it such proportions that set it as an example for an alternative way of protest and promote it so widely and strongly so as to fulfill its objective of spreading the message of saving public property. The idea was to not promote it as “just another social cause event” but a truly meaningful social initiative by people who have experienced and have deeply felt about the issue of damage to public property. The Valley background of the Mehta brothers, founders of IndiaPicture and their experience with protests and riots during their childhood there. Thus besides generating buzz and get the media for the main event of “Blow Up” in a wide array of media formats the one-on-one interaction of the key spokespersons behind the campaign pre, post and during the event was organized with some of the main publications to get in-depth coverage on all the aspects associated with it. The online news dissemination was also done so as to support the online visibility of the campaign which due to its use of website in providing pictures has a crucial role of webspace.

SWOT Analysis:

Strength:

• A unique social initiative · The burning issue of loss to public property
• Already successful at some areas with history of protests – Jat/Gujjar community and Bihar
• Leaders associated with protests of Gujjar community associating with the even and endorsing its viewpoint
• Brought together politicians, past protestors, social activists and administrators to channel a thought process in a right direction
• The central idea of the campaign matched perfectly with the work area of IndiaPicture
• The legacy of The Mahatta studio and the Kashmir background of IndiaPicture founders

Weakness:

• The on-ground activities of burning the images by protestors had already happened at various places and hence the main event didn’t have a visual peg specially for electronic media
• Burning images and effigies of the real object could also be misinterpreted as promoting violence

Opportunities:

• Social campaigns and CSR initiatives are mostly received well by both people and media in India The Anna Hazarey’s fast-unto-death protest movement was at its peak during the time, and hence the issue of peaceful protest was a hot cake
• The Gujjar/Jat protests had recently caused an ample amount of damage to both state government and Indian railways due to loss in public property

Threats:

• The Anna Hazarey issue also was equally a threat with most journalists of the beat were busy covering his breaking of fast
• The social campaign being seen as just another ad campaign with a CSR angle

Evaluation: The Public Relations campaign was successful in bringing the campaign to notice to a wide spectrum of audience through strategic communication and getting third party endorsement from both traditional and online media. Overall the focus of the campaign was successful in not just promoting the event but to translate the social value of the idea to a unique brand value proposition for IndiaPictures, Publicis India and ICONGO.

CASE STUDY: Techtronics Education

Business Objective: To revolutionize the Indian School Education System under the “National Curriculum Framework” of NCERT, and provide a hands-on, activity based learning system to school students. Techtronics helps schools in setting up and running robotics activity clubs and teacher training programs all across India.

Marketing Objective: To cater to Learning by Doing –the mantra behind Techtronics Education. Started in 2006, Techtronics Education has tied up with world’s leading learning solutions provider and manufacturer of products for hands-on, activity based learning - LEGO Education - as their exclusive partner and distributor in India. They also planned to extend this system to a franchise model to expand it beyond schools.

Communication Objective: To create awareness about Techtronics Education and its products and programmes and to establish the Techtronics brand as a key player in revolutionizing the Indian education sector with the help of Robotics in education and activity based learning.

Focus Area: Apart from the overall brand building process for Techtronics the PR mandate also included to specifically highlight the involvement of Techtronics Education in exclusively organizing the Indian chapters of World Robot Olympiad (WRO) – the prestigious Indian Robot Olympiad (IRO) and FIRST LEGO League (FLL) India.

PR Strategy: Channel PR devised a two tier PR Strategy that on one hand took an overall brand building approach at a macro level while on the other hand focused on supporting and expanding the reach of Techtronics Education and its activities at its target regions at a micro level.

PR Campaign: For the overall brand promotion strategy Channel PR focused on establishing the credentials of the brand, establishing the key spokesperson Mr. Sudhanshu Sharma and Mr. Apurva Kalia as torch bearers of robotics learning in education in India. The tools most intensively used here was One-on-One interactions and bridge building meetings with the media to not only generate quality coverage that clearly goes with the communication objective but also establishes a long lasting relationship with the media. The media activities were targeted to provide authenticated information to target group of students and parents across leading metropolitans.

In the micro approach Channel PR focused on the regional media to reach the target regions with most effective communication and support the on-ground activities. Key here was to promote the IRO and FLL events most effectively in the regional press as well as to translate their success to Techtronics Education at the national level to showcase their seriousness in utilizing robotics in activity based learning education paradigm. Also the brand stories were further put across at the regional level to support any expansion and development plan in the region in terms of franchise association. Further, World Robotics Olympiad was highlighted for a global presence.

Apart from the traditional media route the focus was also to have an online outreach, which is crucial to any organization and more so for one working in technology space and with youngsters. As part of the online mandate Channel PR created social media optimization, multimedia content sharing and blogging.

SWOT Analysis:
Strength:

• Techtronics Education is the exclusive partner and distributor in India for world’s leading learning solutions provider and manufacturer of products LEGO Education
• Techtronics Education is the proud Indian National Partner of World Robot Olympiad (WRO) and organizes the prestigious Indian Robot Olympiad (IRO) across the country
• Techtronics Education is also entrusted with organizing India chapter of FIRST LEGO League (FLL), jointly organized by FIRST, US and LEGO Group, Denmark
• Already successful associations with many top schools across the country and good reviews from students, parents and teachers

Weakness:

• Robotics perceived as a specialized branch of science and technology bearing less effects on other streams Conventional mindset of education just through text books still exists

Opportunities:

• India with its sheer population size is a huge marketAccording to sector experts India's education sector presents an investment potential of US$ 100 billion over next 5 years
• An increased competition in education has compelled Indian institutions to innovate their educational offerings and move beyond their traditional markets
• Activity based learning and education is being supported by the governing bodies like Ministry of Education, CBSE and NCERTThe topic was interesting for the youngsters which was reflected in the huge response on the social media platforms

Threats:

• Implementation weakness was the only threat as education and innovation in education are ever green branches of enterprise

Effect and Evaluation: The Public Relations campaign successful. The key objective of building up overall brand through a right mix of promoting the on-ground activities and highlighting profiling stories on the men behind the initiative was achieved successfully. The digital pr initiatives to build online visibility and reputation to the tech savvy target audience were impeccable and added further impetus to the business strategy to maximize outreach.