The Magic of Audience Activated Persuasion (AAP)

This is a perfect saga of stimulating people’s underlying aspirations, imaginations and dreams – and riding the success wave, even during tough times...

Ever wondered: What is the secret behind the meteoric success of the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party (English: Common Man Party; abbreviated as AAP: English- YOU) that recently swept Delhi polls? How can a newly formed Indian political party secure around 30 percent voteshare in just a year? What helped the new kid on the block brand YOU (AAP), being christened as the king for a utopian model of democracy, amongst the media, masses and the extended ecosystem?

Wear your semiotic lenses and look at analytically.  What do you see beneath the threads of “common attire”? 

The 'nomenclature’ - AAP (YOU) - itself alludes to the common man, and reflected the direct emotional connect which runs through all the merchandising. The ‘identity’ of a “broom” is aligned to the core messaging of cleaning the political system, hitherto, unheard of. The ‘differentiation’ was too strong, a rustic Gandhi Cap, symbolic of the ‘freedom movement’ of Indian-Independence era instrumental in boosting the credibility quotient. Using the right mix of opinion leaders, and influencers, optimally, also worked successfully to influence the common man.

The narrative and rhetoric used by the volunteers, lawyers, social workers and social activists, was simply native, drawn from popular culture, indicative of the social sentiment of the times, and direct to the core. The slogan, it’s all about Satyamev Jayate (English: Truth Alone Prevails) infused an aura of authenticity. The motto: to eradicate corruption, at least seemingly so was a perfect example of the power of projected value, even though deferred to the eternity.

It was all about owning the symbolism that connotes honesty, transparency, and perfect governance. And, the aggressive approach to ‘own the symbolism’ didn’t stop there, an open, collaborative, and inclusive approach, laced with a promise of people’s empowerment, and solving all their basic problems prevailing in the society, kindled the hope in millions. It was a promise of transparency, reduced bills for electricity and water, better citizen centric services, getting rid of red-tape, and listening to the problems of people. The leaders using public transport to meet and greet the people directly and walked the talk.

If this is not a perfect concoction for a Live Brand, what else can be?

The promise, though far-fetched, was sufficient to provide the immediate emotional connect to target the inherent goodness in people at large, the unsuspecting audience. Aggressive digital outreach in Twitter and Facebook added the viral quotient and caught the imagination of the Gen Y. Blending the physical movement and social channels heightened the effect, and the popularity swelled. The outcome is evident, an unconventional, yet the perfect B School approach crafted a hypnotic spell.

To augment the realism into the movement social scientists cum party workers used custom made studies that predicted poll outcomes and there was little to suspect the claims, since it only presented slices of life of the party’s popularity.

So, what is there for the Chief Marketers to learn from this? Well, this is a perfect saga of stimulating people’s underlying aspirations, imaginations and dreams – and riding the success wave, even during tough times.

This is what we call the Audience Activated Persuasion (AAP) that is a potent strategy to win the hearts and minds of a billion. At the core of this lies a perfect recipe of the right nomenclature, right identity, right positioning, and right differentiation – an instance, of a living the brand to the core.

The mantra for the leaders, political, or enterprise, must then be to increase the engagement with audience, listen to them, and understand them as individuals. This is age of Gen Y. This is all about finding new ways including digital to forge a direct connect and opening up to audience influence, and crafting designer experience based on user preferences and sentiments that makes individuals trust your brand, hypnotically.

The good news is more and more leaders and Chief Executive Officers across the world want their audience ecosystem to have a growing influence on how their companies operate.  And they want that influence to extend well beyond helping choose new product offerings – all the way to assisting in the development of corporate strategy, a people strategy, and an engagement model that works.

In search of innovation and transparency, these forward-looking leaders plan to substantially extend collaboration beyond their company’s borders with their audience ecosystem. These leaders are creating a blueprint for shaping the future through the Audience-Activated Persuasion (AAP) that can sweep the heart and minds of the people.

Are YOU ready to create a Living Brand?