The deep connection between Independence Day & Social Media Marketing How would you like to see India being portrayed to remind us of the greatness that 15th August holds? There are fascinating ways that will leave you totally awestruck! The quintessential day of the year is just approaching which will unleash a gamut of mind-blowing concepts, creative or purely opportunistic, by the commercial and non-commercial brands. ROI is viable or not, is a different story altogether. Something that cannot go unnoticed is the intense emotional factor that the brands are infused with while hatching the heart-touching campaigns. Rewind 7-decades to know the I-Day campaign Let’s talk about that one campaign that existed and shook the masses even before the Independence had happened. So welcoming you all to the pre-independence times for a few seconds:- ‘Quit India’ movement was a humongous uproar for Independence against foreign rule and it was a much-needed uprising that catapulted the famous revolution of Freedom. In the parlance of marketing, we can call it a campaign, a strategy or we can agree on naming it as a sagacious & spontaneous call of freedom. Though it happened 77 years earlier, it was not naive by any means rather it was a masterpiece of the highest degree. How? It had a powerful idea that challenged the leaders in that scenario. And it generated engagement of the whole of the nation and not just a specific interest-group. It was also perhaps the longest and hence, the most effective campaign of all times. And it was done without a TV, print campaign or online campaign. It was done using graffiti, rallies and pamphlets. And undeniably, it was really ahead of its time. This is how the campaign of independence had sown the seeds of independence and we can go on saying more on it but right now it will suffice to say that it is definitely guiding North Star for us, the marketers, if we choose to follow it. Modern Day I-Day campaigns The creative minds are extrapolating this legacy of independence-Day-feel-filled advertising on I-Day with a blend of gratitude and interesting mindful innovation. As the 71st Indian Independence Day approaches, everything becomes highly-dipped into patriotism. The color of the Tricolour starts to splash all over including the social media. The nationalistic gusto and the nostalgia reflect all over the digital media and the whole thing acquires a cult status for a few days through the efforts of digital marketing. Brands of all sorts roll-out different ways to commemorate the Independence. How deep is their love for our mother nation? In this blog, I am laying out a brief account of how they portrayed the Independence on the onset of this day. When the country turned 70, last year, following were the unheard-of digital ways in which different brands marked their celebration last year: 1) The remarkable approach to create a new website domain extension dotdesi (www.websitename.desi) in 2016 truly created a nationalistic flavor among the Patriots all over the world. Connecting desi internet communities globally, dotdesi became the ultimate domain name to promote one’s online individuality to Indians worldwide. But it went way beyond and boosted a sense of belongingness towards our ‘des’ and its colorful culture! With the launch of #ProudDesi campaign, Indians from 15+ countries came together to sing the National Anthem on Independence Day. The campaign reached more than 1.7Million Indians across the world. 2) TLC, the travel and lifestyle channel launched the campaign to celebrate the woman’s free spirit with #FreedomIs. They put down the anecdotes of women from different walks of life highlighting their constant battle for Independence. The brand capitalized on the Instagram Live story concept and also executed the campaign through terribly tiny tales format. 3) Hyundai celebrated the occasion by creating a special GIF that acknowledged the presence of the brand across the vast landscape of the country and in the hearts of India. The core concept of the GIF was made with various User Generated Content sent to people from across the parts of India to identify user’s efforts in engaging with the brand and to mesmerize with the scenic beauty of the country. 4) Electrotherm Steel saluted the sacrifices made by our leaders and charge full responsibility of making our nation stronger! Celebrating 70 years of independence, the brand wished everyone a very Happy and Proud Independence Day! 5) The coffee brand, Bru Gold through their campaign for #IndependenceDay initiated to keep the legacy of the country breathing. The GIF heavy campaign portrayed the central Ashok Chakra on Twitter through their campaign. 6) Paytm- the Indian e-commerce and e-wallet platform had taken a dig on the current scenario of prevailing corruption in the country in its Independence Day campaign. The video launched by them had encapsulated three situations that seemingly look like the traditional situations where cash/bribes would exchange hands. The video also had a refreshing twist that depicted the nostalgic ‘exchange’ of warm emotions and not cash exchange. The film then concluded with a strong social message of ‘possibilities.’ Bottom of the blog: [Proud Alert: Independence Day language]: Freedom is everyone’s right. Since getting to do (a) the justified set of things towards progress and (b) the wishful thinking defines real freedom. If we, the marketers, emphasize on the right to freedom, the present context takes us to the right to freedom of social media marketing. Freedom Day campaign without freedom element, does not make sense a dime, does it? Our Verdict– (You may choose to differ!) Without any second opinion, it makes 200% sense to make progress on the marketing front via social media platforms as it is what is justified by all means(the stellar examples above did convey the same). We wish you a happy independence day and we welcome your independent-views on the above two-angles of Independence-Day campaigning. Jai Hind! Hitesh Kothari Has played some key Digital Marketing roles when at IBM-Australia and New Zealand, Infosys, Sonata Software. Also worked with the world's best Digital marketer, Neil Patel as Internet marketing consultant helping startups to billion $ companies with their Digital Marketing. Has worked on 100+ marketing campaigns and a few of them are IBM Australian Open, SAPPHIRE, Oracle Open World, etc. He's currently leading Marketo Labz and giving digital marketing strategies to various companies and individuals alike.