UTVi and Dell seek real life business heroes

Dell has collaborated with business news channel UTVi to launch a campaign that urges small and medium business owners to share their success stories

UTVi, the business news channel from UTV, along with Dell, has partnered to bring out some of the success stories of lesser known entrepreneurs through an initiative called ‘Take your own path’. This is aimed at the small and medium business (SMB) entrepreneurs and future leaders from business schools across the country.

In October 2008, Dell launched a series of campaigns which highlighted the success stories of entrepreneurs such as Neeraj Roy of Hungama and P Rajendran, co-founder and chief operating officer, NIIT. The campaign included advertisements in print, outdoor, online and television and was the first ever campaign launched by Dell anywhere in the world.

UTVi and Dell seek real life business heroes

Talking about the campaign, P Krishnakumar, director, marketing, Dell, says, “We realised that the SMBs sought inspiration from people who they can relate to and hence, we needed to feature real life heroes in the campaign and not Bollywood or cricket heroes.”

Four months after the campaign, Krishnakumar says that the familiarity and favourability of brand Dell increased by 8 per cent and SMBs perceived the communication to be believable and inspiring.

This campaign will now get a new dimension, along with the partnership with UTVi, which has been divided into three phases. The first phase will be a six part series showcasing inspiring stories of individuals who have made it to the top; the second one will invite the entrepreneurs to participate in the Dell Small Business Excellence Awards and share their own entrepreneurial journeys, business stories and innovative uses of technology. The top 10 finalists will be featured on UTVi.

Phase three will have UTVi and Dell launch a nationwide business plan competition across B-schools in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Budding entrepreneurs will be invited to present their ideas and business plans to a joint jury in each city.

“With a three stage campaign flow and multi media engagement, we hope to approach and involve segments such as young students and budding entrepreneurs across industry verticals,” says Sumit Gupta, COO, UTVi.

UTVi completed one year of its operations last week. The channel, which stands for ‘simpler younger and smarter’, consciously decided to include a wide genre of content on the channel, including features, weekend specials, reality shows and events as the other existing players focused on the stock markets news.

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