Our Asian Games 2023 campaign is an idea that money can’t buy: Neville Bastawalla

With Sony Sports Network launching its grand campaign for Asian Games 2023, which begins today (September 23), exchange4media caught up with Neville Bastawalla, Head Marketing & On-Air Promotions, Sony Sports Network, SPNI (Culver Max).

Sharing the inspiration and idea behind the campaign ‘Iss baar Sau Paar Phir Se, Hum Hongey Kamyab’ Bastawalla said that in order to ensure that this message resonated across every corner of India, Sony Sports Network garnered support from a line-up of influential and iconic figures.

Union Minister of Sports, Anurag Thakur, Chief of Defence Staff, Lt Gen Anil Chauhan along with Chiefs of tri-services Gen Manoj Pandey, Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar and Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari, Bollywood icons, sports icons and sports journalists have come onboard to back the athletes from India in the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China.

Excerpts from the conversation:

Tell us about your campaign ‘Iss Baar Sau Paar, Phir se, Hum Hongey Kamyab’. What was the idea behind it and what are the expectations from it?

This goes back to Olympics Tokyo 2020 which took place in 2021 when we launched the campaign ‘Hum Hongey Kaamyab’. India has always taken these multi-sporting events like the ones that will fetch only 1-2 medals and athletes are not as popular as cricketers in this country. Most people don’t know the names of athletes. So that time we came up with the anthem of ‘Hum Hongey Kamyab’ which means ‘we shall overcome’. The idea was to make these athletes a household name in India and let the heroes of the nation support these athletes. This campaign was a huge success. When the athletes came back from Tokyo they said that for the first time, they felt that the nation was backing them. Many advertisers said that Sony Sports Network was making multi-sporting events, like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, appointment viewing.

So, from this, we moved to the Asian Games to launch the campaign ‘Iss Baar Hum Firsey Hongey Kaamyab’. We also thought that since the last medal tally was 69, why not set an aspiration to get 100 medals or more? Even if we don’t get it, it will at least motivate them to break the record.

What was the budget for this campaign and how was it different from last year?

Budgets or no budgets, an idea should be that money can’t buy. Even if you had money, would you get access to a navy submarine or an Indian Navy warship? Will the Chief of the Indian Air Force do a sortie for you in the latest aircraft? The idea is so powerful and that is what we thrived on. It broke the challenges of a budget. The films we have made are so solid that organically even the armed forces have come on board.

The budget is not as significant as the World Cup but the whole power of the campaign is organic and that goes beyond money.

Apart from Bollywood icons, the campaign features iconic figures from the country, including the Minister of Sports Anurag Thakur, and a huge support of Indian Defence forces -Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. How did you think of getting so many iconic figures, especially from the defence this time?

While deciding whom to get on board the campaign, we asked ourselves who are the real heroes of the nation. The real heroes of our nation are the ones who are guarding us. So the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) came to our mind. Another hero who came to our mind was the ISRO chief. We couldn’t manage to convert that but we got the other heroes and icons of the nation. The objective is to reach out to the 140 crore people in our country through the heroes of our nation. When we reached out to the Indian Navy Chief, we didn’t want to show just him speaking but we wanted to showcase the whole rainbow of the Indian Navy. The film has the submarine commander and crew saluting. Similarly, we got onboard the Indian Army and Air Force. In my entire career, I have never done such a huge campaign.

We galvanized 15 pan-India journalists across radio, TV, digital and print and made a beautiful film with them. Defence forces, SPNI CEO NP Singh, Sudha Murthy, Hema Malini, Madhuri Dixit, Aamir Khan. Khan was so charged about it. No money is involved in this. Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur is also there.

How many sponsors have come on board this time? Is it better than last time?

This is the first time ever that the Indian cricket team, men and women, will be participating in Asian Games. The sponsor support this time is terrific. We have Hyundai, JSW, Limca Sportz, Paisabazaar, LIC of India, Amul, State Bank of India, Ultratech Cement, Panasonic etc. This kind of support has never been before for the Asian Games. It is a lot better than last time. Three times the scale this time.

How many films are you coming up with for the Asian Games?

There are 20-25 films this time. The buzz is we will cross 100 films.

What will be the marketing strategy and media mix?

We are not going out. We believe in the power of the films and digital shareability. We have a very robust plan for the films. All leading portals on social media will be used. The focus will be on video content viewing. Our team will be working 24x7 through the Asian Games wherein every time India wins a medal or critical moments, clips will be cut out and put out on digital. We will be creating such content for digital. There will be real-time content. Apart from this campaign, there will be live medal updates.