At the Cannes International Advertising Festival this June, Strawberry Frog, which bills itself as the ‘world's first Cultural Movement agency', won two Bronze Lions (awards) for work in cyberspace. www.agirlstory.org told the story of young Tarla who dreams of an education, and www.the-girl-store.org gave visitors a gateway to donate and help girls like Tarla get an education.

The client was Nanhi Kali, which currently supports the education of over 70,000 underprivileged girl children in India. Project Nanhi Kali was initiated in 1996 by the K. C. Mahindra Education Trust, and since 2005, has been jointly managed by the Trust and NGO Naandi Foundation.

The Mahindra group is no stranger to corporate social responsibility (CSR), just as Strawberry Frog is no stranger to cultural movements. The difference between Nanhi Kali and www.SparktheRise.com is that the latter isn't a CSR initiative.

Announced in January, Rise was a corporate philosophy, a call to action - a rallying cry - that Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Group, and his team were looking for. And ‘Spark the Rise' is proof that Rise is not just a slogan, but a movement that Mahindra is looking to spark. And rise with.

“This is a business initiative - this isn't about turning Mahindra into an NGO. The way companies build brands has evolved. In version 2.0, we saw companies come in with a larger purpose and meaning, beyond the business. Now, we are trying to build a 21st century corporation, by energising people and giving them a core purpose to be part of. ‘Spark the Rise' is about co-creating with communities around us,” says Mahindra.

Sparking the Rise

Spark the Rise is intended to be a global platform, the first leg of which is being driven in India. The idea of launching a movement that involves people is a year old, notes B. Karthik, General Manager - Corporate Brand Management and Business Transformation, Mahindra & Mahindra. “When we launched on January 17, we did mention that we were working on a movement marketing idea,” he says.

Beyond the stated core purpose of doing business in a certain way that would help people ‘rise', the team explored if there was a way it could enable people to help others ‘rise'. The strongest insight that drives Spark the Rise, according to Karthik, is this finding: People want to shape their own destiny, and people want to have a say in what is happening around them. They are ‘no longer happy being passive recipients of corporate-speak'.

“Online and otherwise, we found that there is a lot of interest in nation-building. There were a lot of topics suggested by people, and we zeroed in on five for the initiative,” notes Karthik.

The campaign's construct is simple. The Web site would go live on August 17. A multi-media campaign is on, urging people to rise to the occasion. Indians are being invited to post ideas on the site that can uplift their fellow countrymen, be it through projects in technology, energy, agricultural and rural development, infrastructure and transportation, or social entrepreneurship (health, education, sports and culture).

Eight ideas short-listed each month - five by public voting and three by an eminent jury - will get a grant of Rs 4 lakh each from Mahindra. The cycle will be repeated for six months, ensuring 48 supported projects. After six months, the most popular among the top two ideas in each month, will battle for votes for a further Rs 40 lakh in grants. Three runners-up will receive Rs 20 lakh each.

But the grants from Mahindra are only to seed the idea, and give it enough visibility for it to move to the next phase.

“The idea is to provide a meaningful, credible platform that will consistently amplify their message, and help them connect with other like-minded people, and get support for their projects,” says Ruzbeh Irani, Executive Vice President – Corporate Strategy, and Chief Brand Officer of the Group.

Ideas will be chosen for grants on the basis of innovativeness, feasibility, and impact on Indians and the country. Around one lakh Indians employed at the group will be eligible to enter too. Among the stakeholders that Rise needs to address, the employees are a critical component and a trigger.

“At one level, it is going to engage employees and partners like no other programme can,” notes Karthik. More importantly, and immediately, the entire Mahindra ecosystem – from its employees to dealers to retail touch points – will be engaged in activating Spark the Rise.

Critical Take-Off

The television campaign to spark the Rise has been created by Strawberry Frog, and Interface Communications will handle other mass media campaigns. Blogworks is shaping the buzz on the Web, while Lodestar is the media agency. The digital platform itself is being handled by Qais Consulting, Singapore.

Teams are at work overtime. That's understandable, because the first six-month-phase will be critical for this campaign to succeed as a movement. Of the Rs 120 crore allocated to ‘Rise' over three years, a large part is for media – ‘especially this phase'.

One factor that has been considered is the initial trust barrier – on reservations people might have with sharing a unique and monetisable idea on an open platform. The projects could range from education of street children to an innovation that can reduce fuel consumption. In other words, the scope is not restricted to social causes, and business ideas that can add value, in line with the ‘rise' proposition, are welcome too. They could also feed into corporate needs.

“Any really good idea will get lapped up. This is an open source platform - we are not claiming a first right of refusal. If an idea aligns with the business interest of a group company, we might partner with that project. But even if Mahindra does not see value in a project, there are others out there who are free to take it up,” says Mahindra.

The intent is to have on board a critical mass of projects in the first six months that would otherwise not have taken off, explains Karthik. “People need to be convinced that this is a credible platform that can bring an idea to life, or take a project further,” he adds.

Ernst & Young has been roped in as the process partner, a critical component given the public voting involved. The jury includes Rama Bijapurkar, marketing consultant; Jaithirth Rao, founder, Value and Budget Housing Corporation; Nadir Godrej, Managing Director, Godrej Industries; and veteran banker Nachiket Mor. This jury may be scaled up depending on the number of ideas coming in. And coming from the $12.5-billion Mahindra group, this movement could fly. The company's employees could spark the idea too.

An initial challenge is to build or improve digital connectivity with the 7,500-plus Mahindra employees in semi-urban and rural areas, for them to evangelise the campaign. The group will also activate the educational institutions it reaches out to every year, including 150-plus engineering colleges. There's a post from IIT Kharagpur on the campaign's Facebook page already, welcoming Spark the Rise.

Ad veteran Ramesh Narayan notes that for many companies, corporate brand building becomes a challenge. “Not all companies have a fantastic story to tell like Tata Steel. If you have a ready story, and that is interestingly told, it does the job of building corporate brands extremely well.” He thinks Spark the Rise is a brilliant idea and trusts Mahindra will do enough to drive traffic to the Web site “which is half the battle won”. “Mahindra is making a statement it is committed to helping India, and backing it with action. It is an eloquent statement of its positioning, unlike a mere advertising campaign that says the company is committed to some cause or the other.” However, he adds, “I wish such a nice movement was backed by a better planned and executed film, though.”

Big Bet, Bigger Reward

What is promising is that while the group has named the starting date for the programme, it has also clearly stated that Spark the Rise has ‘no end date'. The Group is keen to allow the platform to evolve after setting the direction. And you know that the group is serious about this platform, when its Vice-Chairman says, “We're just going to persist. This is a long-term movement.”

This will be a slightly different movement, even for a veteran agency whose core differentiator is movement marketing. Writing in his blog this May, Scott Goodson, Founder of Strawberry Frog, said, “If you get movement marketing right, there are potentially millions of people who will be ripe and ready to hear what your brand has to say.” The emphasis right now, in the context of Spark the Rise, is on the ‘If'.

‘Rise', according to the Group, is already manifesting itself at the business end, in moves like Mahindra picking up majority stake in electric vehicle maker Reva, or entering the solar energy business, and in multiple changes internally and externally. But the acceptance of ‘Rise' as the company's operating philosophy by the outside world - and not just as a new tag line - hinges on the inclusive movement platform ‘Spark the Rise'.

On the role of ‘good corporate' positioning translating into sales, Narayan notes, “Companies such as P&G (in the US) have researched, walked the talk, and reaped the benefits of this. In India too, consumers are demanding to know if a company is a responsible corporate citizen, what its position on green is, whether it is an equal opportunity employer, and so on. As consumers get younger and more aware, these will be increasingly important critical factors affecting choice."”

Says Anand Mahindra: “I will take responsibility for this movement - I remain on it. This is much more important than selling four more Scorpios. There are other people who do that better than me at Mahindra.” If it lives up to its potential, Spark the Rise will raise the bar in movement marketing. And, one game-changing idea, in phase one, can fuel the rise of this campaign and make it the movement it seeks to be.

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