With an abundance of diverse geography, rich history and variety of cultures, India is a treasure trove of places to see, experiences to have, food to devour, festivals to celebrate and history to learn. Creating an Ad campaign for this truly Incredible India was no simple feet.
Campaign to capture the Heart of India
Story of Incredible India starts in 1972 when late Actor Sunil Dutt launched a campaign to promote Indian Tourism. Afterwards, the phrase "Incredible India" came to be adopted by The Tourism Ministry of India. To take it further, the ministry engaged the services of Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) India to create a new campaign and increases the inflow of tourists to India. Thus, the Incredible India campaign was born. They launched in 2002 with a series of print as well as TV commercials that tried to capture the essence of India and its different aspects.
From rich cultural history and tradition to yoga and flora and fauna. it showed the myriad of experiences to be had in India. The objective of the campaign was to change the positioning India from a low-cost destination to one of luxury.
Criticism
However, the campaign did receive some criticism for failing to cover those aspects of India which would have been attractive to an average tourist. Questions were also raised on the use of the word “incredible” as using a single word to describe India as a whole seemed inappropriate.
Despite criticism, it was widely regarded a successful campaign. Reportedly, after the global launch of the campaign, tourist’s arrival in India in 2008 rose from 2.65 million to 5.38 million which resulted in increase in the Forex earning from $3460 million in 2000 to $11747 million.
Beauty of Incredible !ndia
The ministry, through this campaign managed to show some truly stunning and visually powerful advertisements. This strategy was incredibly impactful in delivering the message of the campaign.
The ministry and agency used “!” in the sign of the logo to create a sense of excitement and establish India as a high-end tourist destination.
In print ads they juxtaposed the logo on tourist destinations which gave these advertisements a sense of wonder and enthusiasm.
Focus was on different aspects of India that could inspire people to visit the country. See how different campaigns reach even the rural parts of India. Aspects covered were from spirituality to animal kingdom, from cultural exploration of different regions to exploring the beauty of nature. These ads were shot beautifully and enticed viewers to find what they seek in Incredible India.
Ads such as these were designed specifically to cater to different countries. Like this particular ad was personalized for UK.
Atithi Devo Bhava
Ministry shifted focus when it realised that Indians themselves were a hinderance to tourism. It then started the Atithi Devo Bhava campaign to educate Indians regarding good behavior and etiquette.
This ad tried to educate Indians on how our various habits destroy our image in front of foreigners.
These Ads had the dual purpose of educating the Indian masses about importance of preservation of Indian heritage, hospitality, helping tourists, cleanliness and so on. It also attempted to strengthen the confidence of foreign tourists towards India as a preferred holiday destination.
They used Aamir Khan in these advertisements as he was a known and trusted face all over the country which worked to boost the impact and reach of the campaign.
However, in 2015 due to Aamir Khan’s comments about growing level of intolerance in India, his contract wasn’t renewed and the Priyanka Chopra and Amitabh Bachchan were kept on as ambassadors of Incredible India for Gujrat and Assam respectively.
Find the Incredible You
Next phase of the campaign, Incredible India 2.0 started with the goal of shifting from generic promotion content across the globe to market-specific content for promotions.
2019 brought Incredible India’s “Find the Incredible You” campaign. It was the winner of Pacific Asia Travel Association Gold Award 2019 in the “Marketing – Primary Government Destination” category.
The campaign consisted of 5 new TV commercials aired on TV as well as digital and social media. The strategy behind this campaign was to focus on internal experience of the travellers themselves, shown in unique storytelling autobiographic format with the tagline “Find the Incredible You”.
YouTube Strategy
Other than “Find the Incredible You” campaign, Incredible India’s YouTube channel has a ‘Choose your own adventure’ where Nicole, a Travel Blogger, makes her way around India for the first time ever.
More Vlogs of travelling around the country where collected under #MyIndia.
Incredible India’s YouTube channel boasts of curating several different series such as ‘The India 100’ to ‘More stories from Incredible India’ each depicting vibrant facets of different regions of India.
Indian tourism campaigns have overall managed to capture the heart of vibrant, diverse and incredible India.
Comments