The International Advertising Association (IAA) has partnered with The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI) in an initiative to bring about a social transformation in the lives of 400 million Indians who do not have access to electricity. As a part of this initiative, the IAA has invited all the member agencies of the IAA, AAAI, INS, amongst others, to compete and develop an advertising campaign to reach out to the masses. The project is spearheaded by Nobel Prize winner and director general, TERI, Dr. R K Pachauri.
Speaking about the competition, Dr. Pachauri said, “The competition designed by IAA to challenge the best innovative minds in this industry, to create the most effective communication for this cause, is a remarkable initiative.”
What TERI aims to achieve with this project is, to harness solar energy with the use of the solar lantern that has been developed by TERI and its technical partners. With its alliance with the IAA, TERI has invited entries from all advertising agencies, to design a campaign for the initiative. The campaigns are to be used across mediums like print and TV necessarily, although other mediums can be included in the campaign as an option. TERI, with the IAA aims to appeal to the citizens of the country and corporate citizens of India, to contribute towards the cost of one Solar Lantern or more. While individuals can contribute Rs. 3,600 which is the cost of a single Solar Lantern, corporate houses are encouraged to contribute Rs. 3 lakhs or more, which includes a cluster of 50 lanterns, a solar panel station, etc. The entries for the advertising competition will have to incorporate this appeal.
Since a monetary constraint to air the campaign across mediums is a problem, it also happens to be one of the major parameters while judging the entries. Speaking about the other parameters that the entries will be judged on, Pradeep Guha, President, IAA India Chapter says, “It’s basically about the creative idea and what we think is the best idea to drive home the objective of the campaign to people.”
When asked about the jury, Guha did not divulge the details. He said, “As of now, we have spoken to a few people, but haven’t fully finalized the jury yet. We’re also trying to keep the jury unknown right till the end of the competition, to avoid any allegations from the agencies concerned.”
Winners of the competition will be awarded with a specially designed trophy, “The Creative Lamp”, in recognition of bringing to fruition an important social project for the country.
