Brief Introduction of TOI’s “Lead India” Campaign

Lead India is a television initiative launched on India's 60th Independence Day by The Times of
India Group in search of a new bold leader for India. This initiative was started in three
successive phase.

PHASE I:
Citizens of India aged between 25 and 45 can participate in the three-stage contest whose result
will be a winner who will be a worthy contender for participating in India's next assembly
elections, besides bagging a seat on the leadership and politics course at Harvard University, and
a corpus of Rs 50 lakh for pursuing a public-welfare project of choice.

Lead India is the sequel to the newspaper's earlier India Poised initiative launched in January
2007. While India Poised celebrated India's recent successes and its growing importance on the
global radar, it also conducted a critical assessment of sectors where India failed to deliver.
Public governance was on top of this list.

Lead India, therefore, addresses that concern by offering the most deserving a shot at active
politics while cutting short the regular long-winded, and often extremely frustrating, path up the
political ladder. It is a hunt to identify new leaders for a new India, men and women with the
vision and ability to empower India with the kind of political leadership that is so conspicuous by
its absence.

Some important members during the Campaign:

There were three members in the jury:

1. Javed Akhtar is a poet, lyricist and script writer.

2. Kiran Bedi, the first woman to join Indian Police Service in 1972.

3. Vikas Singh is the senior editor of Times of India.

 Marketing Programme by “Lead India” (Phase I)
The first phase of the campaign was a series of print ads titled India Poised, along with a
commercial starring actor Amitabh Bachchan. This phase provoked the thought whether we are
really capable of achieving what the world is expecting of us as a nation.

A. Print:

INDIA POISED is a campaign launched by Times of India to celebrate India's christening of

2007 as the 'Year of India'. Sweeping aside the euphoria and headiness surrounding Brand India,
it takes a look at what India had done right & wrong and how it should move forward.

B. Television:

The programme was introduced by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan who spoke with his characteristic
eloquence on the demands of time and the need of the hour for the youth to take up their
responsibilities. The other Ad campaign India Vs India by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan gives
following insight:-

“There are two Indians in this country.

One India is straining at the leash, eager to spring forth and live up to all the adjectives that
the world has been showering recently upon us.
The other India is the leash.
One India says, give me a chance and I’ll prove myself .The other India says prove yourself
first and maybe then you’ll have a chance.
One India lives in the optimism of our hearts. The other India lurks in the skepticism of our
minds.
One India Wants. The Other India Hopes
One India Leads .The Other India Follows.
But conversions are on the rise .With each passing day more and more people from the other
India have been coming over to this side
And quietly while the world is not looking, a pulsating, dynamic new India is emerging.
An India whose faith in success is far greater than its fear of failure.
An India that no longer boycotts foreign-made goods but buys out the companies that makes
them instead.
History, they say, is a bad motorist it rarely ever signals its intentions when it is taking a turn.
This is that rarely ever moment. History is turning a page.
For more than half a century ,our nation has sprung, stumbled ,run , fallen ,rolled over ,got up
,dusted herself and cantered ,sometimes lurched on .
But today as we begin our 60th year as a free nation, the ride has brought us to the edge of
times great precipice.
And one India – a tiny little voice at the back of the head – is looking down at the bottom of
the ravine and hesitating.
The other India is looking up at the sky and saying, its time to fly…”

C. Internet

The Times of India which is likely to incite the most interesting discussions in the Indian
blogosphere. In its new avatar, it wants to enable the Indian electorate to make the right
voting decision in the upcoming elections, by providing a platform for meaningful political
debate and supporting the No Criminals in Politics campaign.
PHASE II:
The second phase of the ‘Lead India’ campaign started in August 2007, with the series of print
ads in newspapers titled ‘Do’ featuring the popular Hindi film actor Shah Rukh Khan. The ads
asked the people what they would do if they were the leaders of the country.
Those who thought that they really want to do something for their country were asked to fill the
application forms, which proved to be great success with 34,000 applications from all over the
country. Out of these, around 64 suitable candidates were selected and were sent for further
stages of GD-PI and debates to test their leadership traits.

Marketing Programme by “Lead India” (Phase II)

A. Print:

A series of print ads titled ‘Do’ were run in newspapers with actor Shah Rukh Khan being
the lead face.

PHASE III:
While the first and the second phase created awareness and invited participants, the brief for the
third phase was to garner as much support from the audience for the eight final contestants.

A. Print:
OATH: There are certain oaths taken by the applicants, those who wanted to bring the real
change in the system of the country. All these oaths are printed in the TOI with the footer
“LEAD INDIA ’09, Lets make this vote count”, to make the developing Indians aware of
what can be done and how to contribute their best to the nation by leading their own country.

B. Television:

The insight for the commercial is that India is a country with far too many deep-seated
problems and most people in the country are aware of the prevalent economic, political
and social troubles, but nobody wants to do anything about it. People know the solution
to the problems, but they prefer to complain rather than act.
The commercial shows a tree that has collapsed in the middle of the road in a crowded
city. The fallen tree has created a huge traffic jam, people in cars are honking and cursing
each other, there is no policeman in sight. A boy sits in a bus watching the chaos. He is
perplexed, not able to understand why people are making such a ruckus about a simple
problem. So, he gets down and starts walking towards the tree.

At that moment, it starts raining. On reaching the tree, the little boy starts pushing hard to
remove it from the road. Suddenly, everyone calms down and focuses on the boy. The
child’s initiative transforms into a revolution as all the people caught in the traffic jam
join in to help him remove the tree. The line that appears at the end of the commercial
says, ‘Seeking tomorrow’s leaders today. Lead India – the search is on.’

The tree in the commercial is a metaphor for the state of the nation today. The whole idea
of the commercial is to combat the cynicism prevailing in the country and generate
serious appeal. The commercial aims to inspire its audience to back the eight young
contestants who are running for the position of ultimate leader and provide them support
with their votes.

The commercial ran on air for a period of eight-10 weeks. There are two versions of the
commercial. One is a full length music video of more than two minutes’ duration to be
aired mostly on music channels. The other one is a shortened version of 80 seconds,
which will run as a regular commercial.

However, TOI believe that they have made a very good contribution towards making the
educated elite in India feel connected with the issues of India and to give them a sense of
involvement and ownership.
.
 Main Motto of the Campaign:

The “Lead India” campaign of TOI is inspiring. It Says – India! its not enough, Lets start by
dominating today and not just be “sleeping tigers” of Asia.

It says,

”If only we ran it. Well, now we have our chance.”

The TOI announces a nationwide hunt for a few good men and women – honest, brave, efficient,
driven- who can take us from being an India Poised to an India Realized. If you think you have it
in you, step forward and together we’ll take a shot at writing India’s FUTURE.

The aim of campaign was not just to spot a winner but also to provide an opportunity to every
Indian to lead the country.

The main motive behind Lead India by Times of India is to

• Select a future leader for India who is educationally qualified, committed and desirous of
making a change.
• Creating a desire among citizens of our country to be part of the democratic process; to
want to make a contribution to the leadership of the nation
• Remind people of the flaws in the political system
• To create an environment where good, honest and hardworking citizens voluntarily come
up for active participation in politics
• Revive its image of a hard hitting journal
• Boost its sales for TOI newspaper
• Excellent brand building opportunity for TOI
 Communication Plan

When the world's largest democracy picks a leader, it's only natural for interest levels to peak. And when
the candidates happen to be people whose leadership skills are untested, yet truly represent the interests
of the man-on-the-street , public empathy takes a whole new meaning. It's something that was richly on
display all through the 'Lead India' campaign , conceived by The Times of India with the objective of
identifying India's future leader. As the contest got keener , a fair share of public discussion centered at
who among the contenders would ultimately emerge as the one best suited to lead the nation. The
choice, ultimately, was whittled down to RK Misra from Bangalore and Devang Nanavati from Ahmedabad
- with the former eventually being declared the winner.

The point of the campaign, however, was not purely about identifying a winner . It was more about
providing every right-thinking Indian a chance to step out of the comfort zone and take on the task of
stewarding the nation. It was a clarion call to be the change that we expect in Indian society; an
opportunity for citizens to shrug off their indifference and put a shoulder to the wheel.

That Misra won the mandate and now has a chance to pursue a political career - with a ticket from either
the Congress or the BJP, or as an independent candidate, all aided by intensive grooming at the Kennedy
School or at the Times School of Political Leadership - is secondary. What's important is the number of
Indians who raised their hands in response to the Lead India initiative - over 37,000 entries were received
from people willing to change India. Explaining the genesis of the initiative, Rahul Kansal, director, The
Times of India brand, says:

"The general public feels that the political process in our country has been hijacked, and what exists
today is a system based on caste, creed, et cetera, and intelligent and as a result, able people are not
getting the chance to come forward."

If Lead India has been a success, a lot of the credit has to go to the multi-media campaign that was used
to generate awareness about the initiative across the eight cities of Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolkata,
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.

The campaign idea, best encapsulated in the 'tree' TV commercial where a small boy ventures to clear
the road of a fallen tree that has blocked traffic, has resonated not only among everyday audiences, but
even among advertising professionals . So much so that Prasoon Joshi, chairman South & SE Asia –
McCann Erickson, created a second film - titled 'hospital' - in his personal capacity, in association with
production house, Black Magic.

"There is a desire among citizens of our country to be part of the democratic process; to want to make a
contribution to the leadership of the nation . Backed by an existing desire, this campaign gave people the
hope of being able to choose a leader from among them," explains Joshi.

Plaudits for the campaign have comes in many forms: news channel NDTV, for instance, declared Lead
India as the Best Integrated Campaign of the Year. And Kansal says that he has received compliments
from many ad industry stalwarts. One such giant is O&M India's chairman Piyush Pandey, who is
unabashed in his admiration for the campaign. "The campaign is about what you can do, and not just to
pass comments on other people. The motive was to get people to participate, and the level of
participation that the campaign has managed to achieve from the public is great," he says.

The man behind Lead India - Agnello Dias, national creative director, JWT India - attributes the
campaign's success to many things coming together in a remarkable coincidence . "There was a strong
sentiment bubbling below the national consciousness ," he says. "India being under the global spotlight
and being seen at the forefront of the world economy triggered off the tidal wave of response that we
received. It was something that was waiting to be tapped."

With Lead India having won hearts locally, the creators of the campaign are now nursing the ambition of
making it one of India's Titanium Lion contenders at this year's Cannes Advertising Festival . "The world's
largest democracy sets out to find its own future leader armed with nothing more than the will of the
people and an advertising campaign. It is indeed a proud moment for most of us who decided to choose
advertising as a career. If the Indian ad industry can forget all its minor differences and champion for the
whole campaign internationally , I will be incredulous and grateful," admits Dias. It's going to be far from
easy, though, points out Joshi, who has been on Cannes juries before and will head the Outdoor jury at
Cannes Lions 2008. "Awards are very dicey.

There needs to be an understanding among the jury about the significance of the campaign in the country
that it's been done for, and the background of the country," he says. Yet, Joshi has some tips on what it
takes for global award juries to see the merit of a strong but local idea. "Familiarise the jury about the
country, give them the work with proper context and reference, and then it will make them understand
better," is his advice.
Whether Lead India will lead India to its first Titanium Lion is dependant on many variables. The good and
important news is that the campaign has already qualified in the test of moving an entire nation. If it ends
up moving an award jury as well, it's a neat little bonus

Drawback in the Campaign:

Though the campaign was a success, not everyone was impressed. Some analysts
felt that its just like a publicity stunt to increase the sales and advertisement
revenues, others pointed out that the campaign was promoted only in metros and
cities and not in the problem-ridden rural areas. They said due to the language
barriers, people from rural areas cannot participate in the contest.

They described the program as more of a reality TV show and suggested that the
campaign should try to rise the bar by being more innovative and not depending on
the voting system, which could be assembled or adjusted.