Elysium - By MICA LitComm in collaboration with Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd.

You can never reach the Promised Land. You can march towards it.
-James Callaghan

Every competition makes you market products and services but what about a location? A place that you can't change unlike a product which can be redesigned to fit a narrative. Ever thought what it takes to market a region or a nation with so many points to speak of? MICA LitComm presents Elysium, a unique niche marketing competition especially curated to test both the left and right hemi-spheres of your brain.

Elysium – Case Study

In 2010, Gujarat was in a strange dilemma as far as its tourism was concerned. Replete with a multitude of magnetic places and destinations, the tourism was in dire straits because the locations were not very well known. The Gujarat Tourism board knew the State had the potential to be a wonderful tourist destination, especially considering its proximity to Mumbai, Delhi and Punjab. They were proud of the places they wanted to promote—fantastic cities and towns. The problem was how to showcase them?

The efforts of the state of Gujarat to become a tourism behemoth lead to the creation of an iconic campaign that spawned the perfect amalgamation of the worlds of advertising and Bollywood. Khushboo Gujarat ki (Breathe in a little bit of Gujarat) was a much needed shot in the arm for Gujarat tourism. A product of collaboration of the persuasive penmanship of Piyush Pandey, the magnetic charm of Shoojit Sirkar and the irresistibility of Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign has been on the air for well past half a decade.             

The campaign is arguably one of the greatest rebranding exercises this country has seen. According to data collected from the Gujarat Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organization (Gitco), which manages the Tourist Flow Information System for the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd, the growth in tourist inflow in 2017 was 263 per cent compared to 2006-07. The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of tourist inflow during a five-year period between FY07 and FY12 was 12.62 per cent, while the CAGR of tourist inflow during the past five-year period between FY12 and FY17 is 14.91 per cent, marking an improvement.

8 years on one problem continues to plague Gujarat’s tourism prospects. Two tourist segments (spiritual and business tourists), make up 91 per cent of the tourists coming to Gujarat. Spiritual tourists’ footfalls have grown 24.6 per cent while business tourist arrivals have grown 14.7 per cent.

Leisure Tourism however has lagged behind. This phenomenon though is the result of a confluence of several factors. Spiritual sites have always been the crown jewel of Gujarat and understandably the ‘Khushboo of Gujarat’ campaign also made it its epicenter. The ‘Gujarat model’, a herculean effort to make Gujarat the nucleus of India’s growth story has also naturally lead to a spurt in Business tourism.

Cracking the code to promote Leisure Tourism in Gujarat is an incredibly complex exercise. A major barrier is a mental one. We as Indians have been conditioned to think of Gujarat as place of temples or as ‘The land of Mahatma Gandhi’. Coupled together these probably do not conjure the most fertile mental imagery for a leisure traveller. Another factor (albeit a logistical one) is that the laws make Gujarat a dry state meaning that the binge partying archetype of travellers are a lost cause.

However, the evolution of Gujarat has meant that its culture has steadily become more mainstream with Rann Utsav and Uttarayan finding much deserved recognition in the popular culture. Moreover the evolution of the Indian traveller certainly means that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel for Gujarat’s prospects for Leisure Tourism.

Round 1 - Deliverables

• Conceptualizing a communication and branding strategy to facilitate proliferation of Leisure Tourism in Gujarat.
• The communication strategy should include the following –

1. The core insight that will drive the strategy. Develop and explain the insight well.

Note- The insight can revolve around the changing narrative of travelling as a concept or the evolution of the millennial/post millennial traveller. (These are just suggestions and it is not mandatory to go down this route)

1. An ecosystem of ideas around your insight that will not only channel it but also sustain it over a period of time.

Note- The ideas can also include event ideas/IPs, an updated tagline, digital marketing etc. (These are just suggestions and it is not mandatory to go down this route)

Judging Criterion

The purpose of the case study is to purely examine the approach of the participants towards cracking the brief. While the quality of ideas will certainly bear merit (Point 2), equal merit will be awarded for the process of Insight development and explanation (Point 1).

Submission

• In PPT/PDF format, not exceeding 7 slides, excluding the intro and title slides.
• Naming convention: Elysium_Team name_College name
• Send the submissions to litcomm@micamail.in

General Guidelines

• Number of participants per team can be no more than 2
• Any number of teams can participate from one institute/organization.
• Inter-College teams are allowed to participate •
• No change in team structure will be entertained after registration of the team
• One participant cannot be a part of more than one team for this event
• The decisions of the organizers of the contest will be final and binding on all the participants
• For any queries, you can contact the organizers or mail us at litcomm@micamail.in