I am currently working on an interesting project to promote UNICEF's campaign to mobilize Indians to support Right To Education (RTE) in the country. It's a unique digital campaign, in the space of education policy, with the aim to keep the debate alive and the public discourse focused on issues around RTE in India. The target audience is the urban middle class - hence the digital medium - who can sign up and act as a pressure group to keep the government focused and accountable. The campaign is called "Awaaz Do." (Website)
In less than 3 months more than 2,00,000 people have already signed up and it is growing. The website acts as the platform that integrates all aspects of direct marketing and social media outreach for targeted engagement. What's unique about this campaign is its exclusive focus on engagement and creating buzz, even though there are resources for people who are interested to get more actively involved. It also acts as forum where different stakeholders come together to forge partnerships to ensure that the 8 million out of school children are given their due.
Increasingly, more and more organizations realize that when it comes to engaging Indians, digital is a medium that is quite powerful with lot of potential. With 3G services coming in, nearly 700 million mobile phone users and more than 80 million internet users, the future of media in India is definitely digital. For PD practitioners, looking at Indian audiences, this actually is a trend that better not be ignored.
Watch Mr Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, speaking in support of the Awaaz Do campaign:
Watch Mr Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, speaking in support of the Awaaz Do campaign:
Suggestions/Critiques welcome.
-- Madhur
