Cause Marketing: Recent examples

Cause marketing is a highly creative way of engagement with audience through partnerships and collaborations. As a part of cause marketing different institutions, do promote a cause, through their own brand promotion activities. Recent examples are as below, 

Success of Chandrayan 3: 

Most of the big brands joined bandwagon of celebration of the success of Chandrayan 3, through their unique brand promotion activities. Few examples are mentioned in the below

https://www.socialsamosa.com/2023/07/chandrayaan-3-brand-creatives/

Here are few glimpses of big brands joining the celebration, through their unique displays on social media platforms. 

2. Gadar 2 Film promotion: 

In a unique brand promotion activity, the private company, Mahindra joined the film promotion, by creating a sequence not he song of a film. It’s an interesting video, which garnered huge response on social media platforms. 

Mahindra campaign for film promotion: 

https://youtu.be/sxr1V08u7Wk

3. India Pak Cricket match: 

Joining the discussion on social media platforms, different brands came up with their own campaign to express viewers feelings about the match. 

https://www.socialsamosa.com/topical-spot/india-pakistan-match-creatives

4. Raksha Bandhan campaign: 

Celebration of Raksha Bandhan festival by different brands, was also a unique way of promoting a cause. 

https://www.socialsamosa.com/topical-spot/raksha-bandhan-2023-campaigns-formed-meaningful-bonds

Film Archive- A peep into our culture..!

Archives is the bridge between multiple cultures, timezones and different

generations. It links an individual to its roots. It takes one to the history. 

Often the name, ‘ archive' denotes old, dilapidated and something dusty. Its an apparent perception of an Archive for a novice. 

It was somewhat similar impression one would have about the National Film Archive of India. Its an archive dealt with the film industry. Some blamed it for bad cans, deteriorated acetic films, forgotten tracks and fragile posters. May be but its not true either! 

NFAI has been the depositor of films in the Country. Many films have been stored here for preservation when their owners have found diminishing utility. Often it was the film lab, which took the responsibility of storage or rather it was automatic for them, as they had to make a copy of films whenever it was required for the commercial release. So the film labs had to keep a copy or copies of the film with them. Not for storage or love for the film but for its commercial utility. They found lost utility with the advent of digital era and started getting rid of old films. 

It was the culture somehow preserved with NFAI. Otherwise neglected culture of preservation, an apathy towards its storage led to loss of numerous films of the Country. Who cared..! It could hardly matter to them, as it was a single celluloid print in thousands of prints. But it mattered the Nation. Nation could have lost its part of culture if NFAI was not there..!

They say, Alam Ara, first Indian talkie is lost, not traceable. Though its a single film for many, its a huge loss for the Nation. NFAI has come into existence in 1964, seventeen years post Independence. The film Industry is older than then Montegue- Chemsford reforms. Somehow neither those associated with the industry, nor from the Government then, could realise its importance. They must not be at fault, as even the Kodak- the manufacturer itself, was not knowing that Film had  a shelf life till 1950’s when Vinegar Syndrome surfaced for the first time. The need for film preservation appeared then. 

Now with many of the films stored and preserved at NFAI, it boasts as Country’s biggest film depositor. It stands tall on this Cultural Heritage. The Government has launched the prestigious and ambitious mission to further extend the life of these films, for posterity, so as to make our kids aware about their past through the lens of films. It is the film which would connect them to their past, culture and the society then. Its the film which would work as a bridge. This bridge would be possible only because of the strong foundations of NFAI, which holds this bridge tight and high!      

Case Study- Social Media- German Professor denying Intern-ship to Indian student

A German university professor's rejection email to an Indian student's application for internship citing the "rape problem in India" as reason went viral on Sunday 8th March, 2015, sparking an online furore. 

1. The professor's emails were posted anonymously as screenshots on Sunday, 8th March, 2015 on the social website Quora, in a post titled "What should an Indian male student do if he is denied an internship opportunity on the basis of India being projected as an unsafe country for women?" 
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http://www.quora.com/What-should-an-Indian-male-student-do-if-he-is-denied-an-internship-opportunity-on-the-basis-of-India-being-projected-as-an-unsafe-country-for-women

By Monday, 9th March 2015, afternoon, German ambassador to India Michael Steiner responded to the fast-brewing controversy, issuing a strongly worded letter to the professor, condemning her action. This letter had received large scale applause on social media space. The copy of the letter as uploaded on website of the embassy is shared here by an account on twitter.

Reactionary tweets:

A subsequent apology from the Leipzig-based biochemistry professor, Dr Annette G. Beck-Sickinger, was then posted on the German embassy's website.

The timely intervention by German Ambassador, on the issue has created lot of positive comments for him in digital media. 

The incident took place in the background of controversial BBC documentary "India's daughter" which created lot of parliament debate and subsequent ban on its broadcast in India. The documentary was based on the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case and had an interview with the convict which created lot of discussion in the Parliament. 

Audio lecture on Ethical Competency for Civil Services Aspirants..!

Sound feature on my article on "Rise fall & Rise of AIR" -broadcast on AIR News 5th March, 2015

Digital Diplomacy- An unique usage, Start to end

Social Media could best be utilised for the International relations, as the medium knows no boundaries. Quick, Instant, Beyond borders reach and Free braodcast makes social media one of the most useful tools in the hands of career diplomats. Who can then use it better than our own Prime Minister that too when the visit is by the US President who too leads in the social media usage!

The Obama visit to India started in November with a tweet from Narendra Modi twitter handle. There after few days back this was confirmed by the White House twitter handle. Both the times, the information made a big news.

Thereafter, the visit took place, with lots of tweets, facebook posts, live streaming and traditional media activities which were supported by One on One discussion broadcast through "Mann Ki baat sath sath" programme aired on AIR. This was the continuation of Obama-Modi joint editorial in USA. The Joint editorial in USA took the shape of Joint radio address in India, both widely covered on all media platforms.


The visit concluded with see off tweets followed by the recognition from MEA twitter handle about the successful conclusion of India-US twitter diplomacy.

The twitter diplomacy was recognised by the MEA twitter handle on the concluding day i.e 27th January, 2015.

Youtube- The Broadcaster with responsibilities?

Gangnam song redefined the way social media was being perceived. It had repositioned social media in the communication map. All India Bakchod, AIB, Youtubechannel, recently in news, though for all wrong or rightreasons, is an outcome of this social media saga.

Psy is the South Korean dancer used to performGangnam dance which could hardly be recognized outside his city. He was not very popular figure in his own town. One day, his experiment with Youtube, uploading the repackaged Gangnam song attracted the attention of the world. People who could hardly connect with the song, or understood the language, too liked the song. Somehow, the song clicked, went viral and made Psy the global icon within six months of its upload on Youtube during 2012.The Youtube company had to re-write its own algorithm to add new counter to accommodate an ever increasing viewers for the song. The dance was even emulated across the Pacific, post world cup victory by the cricket players from west-Indies. What a viral saga!

The world had noticed and realized the power of Social Media. Many tried to emulate the Gangnam model and succeeded as well. Social media thereafter evolved asone of the important media and communication platforms for dissemination of information. People started uploading their local content on Youtube to get the global acclaim, which they received too!

Year 2010 onwards saw the initiation of dedicatedyoutube channels where people could upload relevant videos and started gaining views and following. The concept of dedicated channel, made the people owner of their own broadcasting channel virtually, on the internet space. People could create the content, repackage it and broadcast to the world in the form of Audio-Visual. The alternative to electronic medium was evolved, with the advent of technology. All India Backchod, AIB, was one of such channels started on 29th January, 2012.

All India Bakchod, AIB, is India's edgiest comedy collective. AIB believes in edgy, politically incorrectcomedy. The promoters of the channel regularly perform stand up shows at auditoriums around the country. This led to huge popularity of the channel making it one of the most viewed channels of Youtube. The present video views for the channel are nearly 65 million and rising.

Riding against the wave, where TV channels first established their presence on the electronic media and later on brought themselves on the social media to encash upon the rising social media popularity, AIB had started its journey on youtube first. It started its dedicated channel onyoutube with all kinds of comic shows/ programmes/ animations and parodies making available for the people. The channel staged the comic shows as well, which were either shown live on youtube or were recorded, repackaged and uploaded for public consumption, with adult warning messages before the video streaming. These types of shows have created its own following and liking for the channel.

Riding on this format, with ever increasing popularity, celebrities too could hardly keep themselves away from the show. Post “Comedy with Kapil” on TV, I think, AIB is the sensation which even the celebrities could not resist to explore. Karan Johar show is one of the recent attempts in this direction.

Karan Johar show, uploaded on the AIB youtubechannel on 28th January, raised alarms bells. Alleged nasty content with porn language has disillusioned many people across the corners, raising the controversy over content of the video. The event was attended by nearly 4000 people, including men and women. Few of the celebrities too were seen enjoying the show. The show was hosted by KaranJohar with participants as Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapooralong with other cine stars. The video got viral with crossing 5 million hits collectively (part 1,2 and 3), whichwas subsequently removed by the owners of AIB, due to its controversial content.

The show saw tweets from Maharashtra’s cultural Minister and one of the censor board members against its content. The tweets and support thereafter followed on the social media, some supporting freedom of speech and expression whereas others criticizing the content of the video, supporting the censorship of such content for publicviewing. The show raised some basic issues which need to be deliberated upon for better sense prevailing in the society.

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Whether the Content on youtube by public and popular figure, be made available freely without any regulation?

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Whether the Social media rides only on the freedom of speech and expression with ever lessening responsibility?

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As for dictatorial regimes, should the democracies tooseek for regulation or self-regulation of the social media?

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Does the public figure have any responsibility towards the society when they produce the content for whichonly the section of the society is ready?

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Some says it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. So should we wait for some more time to make the ‘cup of tea’available as per the taste of people?

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Should we go ahead in the present scenario without taking any cognizance of the content on social media, considering our society in the transient stage?

I think the issue in hand gives an opportunity, to discuss, deliberate, learn and unlearn myths and realities of social media, freedom and responsibility dynamics of the communication! As some says “great power comes with great Responsibility!” then how come the rising power of Social Media traverse without any responsibility?

 

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Views are personal

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By Santosh Ajmera, IIS