Birla is undoubtedly a well known name in every Indian household and especially every one who grew up in the 90's would be very well acquainted with the "Rising Sun" logo of the group. And that's when the group touched every common Indian through their famous clothing brands like Allen Solly and Van Heusen introducing a completely new segment - "Smart Casuals".
What really gravitated me to the brand was the advertisements starting from the quirky ones for Birla sun life commercials and the extravagant video encompassing the tagline - "Taking India to the world". The latter one's quite hard to miss as it was one of the prominent videos in advertising of that period encompassing the five elements of nature, winning multiple awards worldwide. The creativity and thought put into the video did spark my interest in advertising and did make me wonder on how to be a part of such a creation process.
More followed with Idea cellular campaigns starting with "Walk & Talk" starring Abhishek Bachan stealing the show. Also, I noted that the advertisement campaigns by Idea were socially relevant and put forward strong opinions which was not generally the themes for a cellular company. The campaigns touched various issues concerning the country like "The caste war"- where the sarpanch ended the caste war by asking people to address each other by the mobile numbers and not the name - taking on social issues with a pinch of humour. The campaign to keep cricket clean featuring six world cup winners from around the world was socially relevant and did drive the point very clearly.
This did reveal to me the endless causes advertisements can address and that it can be a powerful social tool to bring a change in the mindset of a huge populace. And this thought is a powerful force which did drive my decision to pursue a PGDM focusing on marketing and I wish that the group rolls out amazing campaigns which could inspire more people like me to enter the arena of advertising and media.