Mktg - Idea Cellular seeks public opinion through Bythepeople.in

Kapil Ohri

After releasing its television commercial showing a politician asking the public for its opinion before finalising a development project, Idea Cellular has gone ahead and started gathering public opinion in real life.

The mobile operator has unveiled a microsite, called Bythepeople.in, which is offering a platform for people to raise their voice on any public issue. Visitors to the website may, after leaving their contact details, write down their opinion in 10 words and submit it.

The microsite is also running a poll asking visitors to decide if participative decision making is the way forward for Indian democracy. Currently, more than 96 per cent individuals have voted for a participative decision making democratic process, while less than 4 per cent have voted against it.


Speaking to afaqs!, Pradeep Srivastava, chief marketing officer, Idea Cellular, says, “This is just the beginning, or Phase 1, of our online campaign. The idea is to sensitise people about the participative decision making democratic process and communicate that it is possible to take the opinion of the people. We also want to show that politicians can be more evolved in the sense that they actually involve people in the democratic process.”

Srivastava adds, “Later on, we may use the opinions generated through the website and send it to the relevant government authorities, depending on the issue raised.” He indicated that Phase 2 of the campaign would take the participative decision making idea further. However, he was not ready to divulge any more information about their plans.

The mobile company has also kickstarted a two week contest on December 22 on IBNLive.com. Called Duniya Se Bol, the contest offers a platform to IBNLive.com users to submit their opinion on any public issue.

Idea Cellular has started promoting the website through online banner ads. The site has been developed by the interactive agency Tribal DDB and Lintas Media Group in association with Pinstorm Technologies is handling the online and mobile marketing for Idea on Yahoo.com, Rediff.com and other websites.