MAM
Marketing of India to Trump
MUMBAI: It’s not your normal day when the president of the United States of America pays a visit. India tried to sway his priorities and hosted the guest and his family as lavishly as possible.
Starting its preparation a month in advance, the Indian administration left no stone unturned to woo US president Donald Trump.
From traditional folk dance at the airport to the 22- kilometer long roadshow lines with people waving the first family while holding flags of both the countries, India went big in all its efforts. The preparation didn’t stop there as Ahmedabad saw posters and OOH ads all across the city with the tagline ‘two dynamic personalities and one momentous occasion'.
Dentsu Aegis Network India chief executive officer Anand Bhadkamkar says: “I don’t think the hospitality given to Trump and his family could be termed as a marketing strategy. However, India presented itself quite well in front of the US president. Trump’s India visit was more of to enhance bilateral ties between the two nations and bonhomie between the leaders.”
Trump for the first time ever addressed a crowd of over 1 lakh attendees on a foreign land during an event.
“Trump is a persona, who is all about spectacle and received very good spectacle in Ahemdabad", believes Bengaluru-based brand guru Harish Bijoor. “It was a very lavish show presented by India as far as the US president was concerned.”
Donald Trump was on his first-ever two-day (24-25 February) state visit to India post his election as the US president in 2016 along with wife Melania Trump and other dignitaries from his administration.
The first day of Trump’s visit to India was all about hospitality to Trump. Post landing in Ahmedabad, he visited Sabarmati Ashram, attended Namaste Trump, a return gift for the Howdy Modi event that took place last year in Texas, followed by a visit at the Taj Mahal and eventually ending the first day in the national capital for the next day’s ceremony. The second day was all about a ceremonial event to honour the guest with a state dinner at President of India’s residence Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Bijoor says, “POTUS (President of the United States) is a very powerful persona as far as the world is concerned, particularly in terms of business and occupying a solid position in the mind of POTUS has been the basic goal of India during the Namaste Trump event, which we have achieved successfully.”
“The marketing goal of India to Trump was to achieve that pole position and it has been very well established. If the US president repeats his term in the presidential elections slated this year then the gamble is well played as we have a friend in the US for another five years," adds Bijoor.
As a marketing strategy, this is not the first time that prime minister Narendra Modi has hosted a guest in different parts of the country apart from New Delhi. He had hosted China’s president Xi Jinping in Mahabalipuram, a coastal town in Tamil Nadu, last year and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi in 2015, wherein Modi made Abe participate in Ganga aarti.
“Modi is one of the best marketers India has ever had in all of the prime ministers. Modi is India’s best brand endorser,” says Bijoor. “I don’t think India has had any brand endorser as good as Modi. In terms of branding, we’re at a focal point right at the peak with prime minister Modi as a brand ambassador.”
One only hopes that India's marketing to Trump pays off adequately in the eyes of the world.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
