Branding the state

Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh use celebrity endorsers and launch social media campaigns

Over the past few months two states have gone full tilt on their campaigns for investor summits; Jharkhand with celebrity endorser M S Dhoni has spent close to Rs 48 crore in print advertising alone and Andhra Pradesh, with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been raising a digital storm for an undisclosed sum. It is also the only state to have pitched its tent at the recently concluded World Economic Forum at Davos, an exercise it says it will repeat next year. If the tone being set by these two states is an indicator, 2017 could well see a rash