Lead India

Background

In order to elevate the newspaper from a social mouthpiece to a catalyst for social change, The Times of India launched a national initiative on 1 January 2007 to mark the dawn of India's 60th Year of Independence. The campaign was intended as a clarion call for committed citizens to step forward to become a new generation of leaders in the world’s biggest democracy.

Idea

The Times of India wanted to break the social inertia of acceptance in India and galvanize the nation into action. As M.K. Gandhi said, ‘We must be the change we want to see in this world.’ Starting with a single press ad, which was also read out on national TV by India’s film icon Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign quickly snowballed into a national movement. In order to harness the mounting public feedback, in August the Times of India launched a second phase of the campaign, which was to involve a massive talent hunt for a potential new leader. Another front page press ad and TV spot called upon India to stop thinking, and to start doing.

Citizens aged between 25 and 45 were encouraged to participate in a three-stage contest whose resulting winner would be a worthy contender for India's next assembly elections, besides bagging a seat on the leadership and politics course at Harvard University and receiving $100,000 for a public project of their choice. Over the next few months, the movement gathered momentum, with over 100 press ads (including eight front pages), 12 television commercials, three websites, street level activity, public debates and 18 hours of reality TV programming, in which viewers could vote for their favourite candidate to lead India.

Results

34,000 applicants took part in the contest. The campaign website registered more than 1.3 million hits and there have have been more than a million views on YouTube. The reality television programme was telecast on the Star One channel, part of India's largest television network, with seven corporate sponsors behind it. The British High Commission has announced that it will sponsor a Chevening Leadership course at the London School of Economics for three Lead India finalists. More than 20 celebrities volunteered to participate free of charge.

Our Thoughts

Should this have won the Grand Prix? Even if you think ‘no’, it is still a startlingly big idea. What would happen if, next time you sat down to answer a brief, instead of thinking ‘how can we help grow this business by a couple of percentage points?’ you asked ‘how can we change the world?’. Maybe nothing or maybe a campaign like this.