How Digital Marketing Storm Hit India

The autumn of 2014 will be remembered as the time when the perfect storm struck. It was the time when a number of forces came together to shake business in India from its very roots. Businesses across sectors, public and private, large and small and even political parties witnessed history being written in front of their eyes. The early adopters flourished, the smart set quickly followed them and the naysayers still live in denial. Yes, digital marketing had become mainstream and impacted every aspect of our life from our political leadership to the way we consumed.

Leading the storm were the elections of 2014 and a man who at 63 had understood a few years before his peers that the internet would not only make him the most powerful man in India but also be his legacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP swept the elections with a massive social and ground campaign that was more innovative and data driven than anything that his critics and opponents could manage. Most of them used conventional media as their main weapon and failed. An interesting thing happened during the course of the election campaign lasting more than 9 months. Slowly but surely, television and print started following social media to pick up trends. They had become the followers without realising it.