At IAA meet, advertisers swoon over brand Narendra Modi

MUMBAI: “I think the world is waiting for next year when we see you in Delhi as the head of the government.” Even before campaigning began in earnest or a single vote was cast, the Indian chapter of the International Advertising Association had already elected its prime minister. These were among the opening remarks from Srinivasan Swamy, president, IAA India, at the IAA Global Marketing Summit, minutes before BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi took the stage for the concluding session.


Modi was at the very least the biggest draw at the IAA summit, with the venue packed almost to full capacity half an hour before he arrived. Going by the number of cars pouring in, it was obvious that for many delegates, this was the only session that mattered.

The Gujarat chief minister’s speech was an equal parts mix of disappointment at how poorly Brand India had been presented to the world and what the country could do to better market its culture, heritage, organic farming and music, among other things. Especially for the audience who had sat through all the other sessions to hear him, it was refreshingly free of marketing jargon or branding clichés.

Brief conversations with ad folk after the event proved that Swamy was not alone in believing Modi was the right and quite possibly the only man for the prime minister’s job, come elections 2014. He was described by Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director, Madison World, as “a true marketing genius and a terrific communicator. If his impromptu views on building brand India could be so well thought then I guess his views on the economy, education, rural poor and so on would change the face of India. I think we need to give him a chance. I think he needs to work with the mass electorate where it matters.”

For Subhash Kamath, managing director, BBH, the session counted as something of a marketing master class. “I was inspired from two or three perspectives. It was absolutely extempore, without a prepared speech. He spoke from a branding, advertising and marketing point of view, far more insightfully than many ad gurus. He covered identifying the target audience the symbolism of the brand, need gaps, differentiation, uncovering strengths and how to market them.”

For Piyush Pandey, chairman and chief creative officer at Ogilvy, what resonated the most was Modi’s take on the inspirational role of communication: “Without being a marketing person, he wonderfully captured the soul of communication. I thought he was very inspiring, knew what he was saying and he delivered it in a dignified apolitical fashion.” Added Sanjay Tripathy, senior executive vice president and head of marketing — products & direct channels at HDFC Life, “He has presented a different way of reviving brand India. I particularly like his theory on creating an impression versus inspiring.” Balsara also admits to seeing a surge of positive sentiment about Modi in the corporate and marketing fraternity, especially over the last six months.

Early on in his speech, Modi had distinguished between impressive marketing and inspiring marketing. Considering he has many influential voices in the industry speaking in his favour — and probably awaiting the chance to pitch for the BJP — we can safely assume that his speech to the IAA was a good example of the latter.