Even as the Ardh Kumbh Mela is expected to pull in 150 million pilgrims to Prayagraj, the International Advertising Association (IAA) is aiming to attract thousands of marketing mavens and advertising biggies to God’s Own Country. Brand Dharma is the theme of IAA’s 44th World Congress being hosted by India for the first time in the organisation’s 80-year history.

It is fitting that the country is hosting the mega event because it’s also for the first time in the eight-decade-long history of the New York-headquartered IAA that it has an Indian as its chairman and world president. Srinivasan Swamy, chairman of R K Swamy Hansa Group, took over IAA’s reins in October last year.

“We worked towards getting the event here, but India’s choice as venue also shows the ascendancy of the country on the global stage,” says Swamy.

The event, to be held during February 20-22 at the scenic Bolgatty island in Kochi, has a veritable who’s who list of speakers. Leading the action is the conference chairman, Reliance Industries CMD Mukesh Ambani. From Unilever’s outgoing CEO Paul Polman to Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf to tennis ace Andre Agassi in conversation with Vijay Amritraj, the event is going to feature 40 high-profile speakers who have never been seen together on one stage before.

The delegates — some 2,500 are expected — will arrive from 40 countries and will include 500 MBA students from India, specialising in marketing, who get a chance to listen to leaders from exciting companies, be it Alibaba’s group CMO Chris Tung or Simon Kahn of Google. “We are working to implement the best Marcom (marketing communication) event for India,” says Swamy.

As for the conference theme, Swamy says Dharma denotes the righteous path and today brands have to tread this path. Brands need to have purpose, stand for sustainability, gender equality, and all things right. The other theme at the conference is “Tech for good’.

All conferences have to be forward looking, says Swamy, but “we are injecting a little extra dose of forward”. The conference will address “what’s coming next” in the world of marketing, branding and media. So there will be sessions on artificial intelligence, digital media, perhaps even space!

At the same time, says Swamy, the conference will stay connected to the human side and has pulled in spiritual leaders for that reason. And, there will be dollops of entertainment as well, with fun evenings planned.

IAA, he says, stands for two things — free speech and self-regulation. The effort is that advertising communication is not hindered in any way, though at the same making sure that competition is not disparaged. And IAA, he says, has fathered self-regulation playing a big role in the ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India).

India on global stage

It’s certainly great that this mega advertising congress is coming to the country, but is Indian creativity truly global? After all, we haven’t really hit the big league at Cannes? Swamy strongly rejects that sentiment. “We are pretty good at what we do. Our communication is attuned to our people,” he says, pointing out that globally they may not understand our culture and try to benchmark us against their ideas. “But as the world gets increasingly exposed to Indian thought, our work will speak more on the global stage,” he assures.

In the meantime, what better place to decode the religion of advertising than in God’s Own Country?

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