Social advertising campaigns in India have found new heroes?business honchos. This hitherto unexposed class is now rubbing shoulders with popular Bollywood stars and sports icons to promote anything from national integration to climate change awareness. And it is evident from the new avataar of the legendary national integration anthem Mile Sur Mera Tumhara aired across channels, with Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and wife Nita, liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Vedanta chief Anil Agarwal and Godrej boss Adi Godrej and daughter Tanya taking the centrestage.
Indian business leaders have rarely made forays into social campaigns in the past, which could come as a surprise given that social advertising has always been big. As per the latest figures available with TAM Media Research, social advertising ranks second in advertising volume, both in print and television this year, with 3% share in TV and 8% in print. Perhaps the only other instance of Indian corporate bigwigs getting together for such non-profit endeavours is an ad campaign titled In Good Company, produced by the Centre for Social Markets, and launched at the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, 2009. The video featured prominent Indian business leaders YC Deveshwar, Nandan Nilekani, Jamshed J Irani, Jamshyd N Godrej, Girish Paranjpe, Naina Lal Kidwai and Anand Mahindra, among others.
According to brand strategy consultant Jessie Paul, right from the days of the freedom struggle, India has had business icons, ?JRD Tata was always respected, and Motilal Nehru had his roots in business. The Birlas were also associated with the freedom struggle and respected for that.? But now visibility and positioning seem to be playing out.
Kailash Surendranath, director of Phir Mile Sur, says the idea was to capture the cross section of India and highlight its new icons. ?Everyone was very responsive. Messages of national integration always draw interest from all sections and business leaders are no different.? The 1980s? Mile Sur was of 6 minutes and 9 seconds but missed out on corporate faces. The 2010 version is longer, 16 minutes and 17 seconds, and true to the changed India of the new millennium where businesses have taken centrestage. The edited version of video is 2 minutes and is currently running on various channels. Surendranath says entertainment channels are focusing on the film industry and business channels on business honchos?they are calling it the ?corporate edition?.
Interestingly, these honchos are not just getting comfortable in front of the camera but also investing efforts on the shoot and making sure that the message put across is just right. Surendranath recalls how Vijay Mallya was exceptionally sporting and did the lip sync in Kannada. ?Mukesh and Nita Ambani took out time to go to Jamnagar, zeroed on the ecological forest and shot with schoolchildren. Similarly, we shot Adi and Tanya Godrej on the terrace of their house in Worli. For this one, we chose the father-daughter duo as it brings out how daughters are the business successors in contemporary India. We shot Anil Agarwal at his office in Orissa where he is working on an educational institute. We would have loved to feature Anand Mahindra, Anil Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Ratan Tata, but owing to logistics of scheduling we missed out on them. But if there is a fresh update of the video, they will surely be a part of it.?
Surendranath adds business honchos have emerged as the new icons of India?they are progressive, constructive and putting India on the global map. ?Earlier, business leaders maintained a low profile but now, given their global footprints and high visibility in the media, they have become very strong media personalities.?
The trend is consistent with the ethos of the times and represents the coming of age of Indian Capitalism. ?Given the exponential growth of the Indian middle class and the influence of acquisitive enterprise and capitalism, it is natural that successful business leaders are acquiring an iconic status,? says Raman Mahadevan, Chennai-based business historian. He rounds up that these business heads represent a Shining India, of the ultimate success in enterprise, worthy of emulation.