My best campaign is Google's India Inspires India, says Dheeraj Sinha

We picked up real use cases, stories from the ground as examples to highlight the kind of impact Google is having on people's life, says Sinha

Which do you consider your best campaign and why? When was the campaign launched?

My favourite work is the latest campaign that we put up for Google, India Inspires India. It’s one of the agency’s latest works released in August 2018. It is purely an Indian initiative for a global brand. The campaign highlights the tremendous impact that Google’s various initiatives have on India. While working for the campaign, we were mapping Google’s initiatives such as rail Wi-Fi and its developer’s training programme. We had goosebumps looking at the impact that some of these programmes have at the grassroots level. The challenge then for the team was to bring alive this story of transformation led by people.

What did the campaign achieve for the brand?

The work showcases the power of the internet Saathi.  We picked up real use cases, stories from the ground as examples to highlight the kind of impact Google is having on people’s life. The campaign covered examples from diverse fields like lemon grass farmers to Channapatna toy makers who have been given a new lease of life, thanks to one common factor in their lives — the internet. More than anything else, this campaign brings alive the real transformation that India is going through on the back of initiatives from brands such as Google. It tells the story of human endeavour and transformation — something that’s at the heart of brand Google.

Dheeraj Sinha, managing director, India & chief strategy officer— South Asia, Leo Burnett

What was the key idea behind the campaign?

The brief from the client was to bring forward and share Google’s story in India. The immediate context was the Google for India 2018 event. Our interpretation was to see everything from the lens of humility. We realised that this wasn’t a story about technology; this was the story of people. We realised that the reason this transformation is epic is not merely because of the access to technology. That apart, this transformation proves to be impactful because here people are inspiring each other. This is a story of India inspiring India. And the resultant change therefore is not a linear progression but a geometric progression. It has a greater impact on people and their surroundings.

What is the kind of research and brainstorming that went into the making of the campaign?

It was important for us to understand the impact it had on people. We went through a lot of documentation and footage on Google’s initiatives and how they touched people’s lives. The team spent time understanding how technology powers human transformation. We studied the role of community versus the role of access in building and powering ground-up revolutions.

What were the execution challenges?

Typically, campaigns such as this end up being a chest-thumping exercise. The biggest challenge was to maintain the humility that a brand such as Google has, to present the story of the people and their transformation than that of technology or its enabler.

MY TAKE

For us, the hero of the script was not technology. Rather it was the human-to-human connection and its power to transform that was central to our story

Brand: Google

Year of launch: 2018

Agency: Leo Burnett