NetVarsity 'e-learning' campaign to break next week

e-learning as an alternative to traditional classroom learning is a concept that NIIT is aggressively pushing by ‘evangelising the cause' of e-learning. A nationwide campaign slated to break in the coming week hinges on man's primitive emotion ‘fear', to address the need to e-learn in order to survive in today's menacingly competitive world. And to do justice to this cause, Euro RSCG, the incumbent agency has taken up the task of driving home the point that "because learning never stops, you need to e-learn."

The campaign will reach 20 million working professionals in SEC A and SEC B category who are net literate, in the age bracket of 24-44 years through print, TV and the net. Print ads will appear in general interest magazines and computer magazines. On TV a 30-second three-film campaign will be beamed during KBC on Star Plus and on all the other Star channels, AXN and Zee. The web sites that will be used for advertising are contest2win, jobsahead, yahoo and rediff. However the company officials refuse to give any indication of the ad spend. But going by the scale of the campaign NIIT has planned, it is safe to assume that the company is spending a colossal amount.

The main idea behind the campaign is to drive home the shift of NetVarsity from being an information site to an e-learning site, which, for NIIT, was a logical extension. Currently NIIT has 23 centres across the country. Compared to the number of students enrolled in these centres, working professionals are just about a handful. The reason? Their long and hectic work schedules.

Says Sanjeev Roy, director Euro RSCG, "So rather than getting them to physical classrooms, NetVarsity has taken virtual classrooms to working pros. Now they can e-learn at their convenience ‘anytime' ‘anywhere'." Currently, there are 70 courses available on the site that professionals can enrol for.

While the print ads will be copy intensive educating professionals about e-learning, the TV commercials will exploit the fear situation to stimulate the target audience. The films use the metaphor of sinking, rock climbing and a chase scene to address the issue. Explains Roy, "These are situations where people are shown grappling to survive. The drama concludes with a ray of hope." The catch phrase, "Because learning never stops you need to e-learn." Quite obviously, NetVarsity.com is the place where e-learning starts.

Co-incidentally of the three films two show women struggling to survive. Pranav Dewan, vice-president, creative, Euro RSCG, explains "There is far more pressure on the women to succeed today than a few years back. But paradoxically Indian women are far more bullish now than they have ever been in our history. The last film shows a bunch of menacing looking ambitious men clad in back suits chasing a woman. The suspense is whether they are going to catch up and do something nasty or will she succeed in getting ahead. There is a flip in the end. She takes an elevator to move up. The elevator here is the metaphor of ‘e-learning'. The idea is not to convey how to escape but to prove that one has to move ahead fast; if one slackens others will overtake."

"Given the fact that cutting edge professions like IT, services, manufacturing etc are evolving rapidly ‘e-learning' is becoming increasingly important. This concept has already taken off in the developed countries since the (net) connection is fast and the net is used extensively for learning " says Sanjeev Roy, director, Euro RSCG. And NIIT hopes that the campaign will at least clear ‘the mindset problem' to begin with.

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