Omnichannel Spaces and Youth Engagement for Global Action

By: Sehaj Sahni

While the largest population of youth in the history of mankind in India and many other emerging economies is overflowing with aspirations in the connected world we live in, the virtual connectedness helps little to fuel these aspirations and greatly hinders the translation of impact into measurable and sizable action. The spaces that do exist like schools, colleges, coaching institutes, and corporates instill a feeling of competition rather than much-needed collaboration to fuel the Youth Power. On one hand, we have seen youth filled with aspirations to learn, work and earn in a global environment, the local infrastructure, tools, facilities, and labs available at institutes ranging from schools to corporates are biased towards a specific curriculum and don't necessarily appreciate our talents in the way our generation anticipates. Adding to that, with the advent of technology and social media; Youth is quite aware of their issues and many admit that the external pressure that comes in the form of assignments, appraisal cycles, etc is way too much to handle for today’s aspirational youth. Though we find that there are many physical and virtual channels for youth to connect, there is a need to integrate and unify the experiences for the current generation of young people that occur within and between contact channels.

Further, Youth suicide rates in India stands at >35% of the total police recorded suicide cases. The lack of social, safe, and affordable spaces for youth is a major obstruction in the path of development; and the youth development sector in general. On the other hand, we have found that there are also a lot of disused and underutilized spaces that can be converted into omnichannel spaces that have the potential to integrate and unify the online and offline experiences that can add up revenues for the owners while also providing affordable stays for youth in a specific region.

What is Omnichannel Strategy?

A term commonly used by today’s marketing and retails firm, might be the answer to the solutions of youth engagement at local, national, or global levels; omnichannel is broadly a new concept to understand the youth action given the immense improvements in technology available and a greater need to unify the experiences for the young people and adolescents. Multichannel engagement avenues are available for youth to connect with the positive actions in our communities, but without proper integration of shared synergies, the messages communicated towards localizing the global best practices become highly diluted and hence the overall impact takes a back seat.

As we see the business licensing and approval process further simplified by the Government of India, we also see an upsurge with a growing number of businesses specially categorized under the tag: Startups. There is certainly more ease in the commencement of businesses, but a serious lack of physical and virtual infrastructure to support the aspirations of the startup world worsens the situation for most of the leaders of tomorrow. Also, more than they need for offices, there is a need for spaces focussed on inviting new age innovators, changemakers, artists, digital marketers, campaigners, community builders, entrepreneurs, etc.

Further, In recent times, through our public surveys, we have concluded that most of the urban youth feel they are more aware than ever but less than 10% of the participants feel that they are properly engaged in matters of civic importance(IYC, 2019). Civic engagement if unchecked can lead to a disastrous path as the demographic dividend grows in the next decade. Enabling a self-sustaining model and instilling a creative community at spaces have been at a matter of importance as India takes a center stage in the World. Young people already speak out. We just need to be heard. Furthermore, the phenomenon of “Youth Bulge” poses great challenges for the socio-economic condition in India, while at the same time also presents vast opportunities for Young India, only if this share of the population is included in the formal decision-making process and young people are involved in local policymaking. The participation of the Youth is a major feature to be looked upon and how we engage our youth in the community and the World at large and provide leadership skills through informal collaborative activities shall primarily drive the socio-economic growth in our country in the future. As per World Economic Forum reports, the number of youth in NEET( Not in Education, Employment and Training) in India is more than 200 million which is a staggering figure considering the future of the world's largest cohort of people between the ages 10-24, is already at stake. Adding to that, the lack of data on marginalized and vulnerable youth makes addressing the special challenges even more difficult.

Spaces of Expression in Conflict Prone Regions:-

Safe spaces designed especially for the Youth in conflict zones such as Kashmir, Rakhine, Syria, etc. can enable a positive and cohesive environment around the issues they face and enable them to realize positive mental growth. If we provide more opportunities for Youth by enabling physical spaces where they can engage in meaningful conversations- a lot of issues over the radicalization of Youth can be solved.

Gladly, We have been working on researching the youth mindset for more than 5 years and also empowering and enabling safe spaces to express through a bundle of activities that have worked on the omnichannel model - an interplay of media, technology, local experiences. We started India’s first truly youth cafe, Urban Desi House with a triangular revenue model of coworking, events, and hangout space selling affordable food and beverages for urban youth. We learned that an omnichannel approach with the interplay of media, technology and localized experiences towards youth engagement can be introduced to enable informal learning and foster collaboration for youth at physical spaces at several centers in any nation to track and monitor young citizens and recognize the efforts shared through skills mainly through a single ticket system. Social credits that can be used to avail selective government schemes are perhaps one concrete way to create repositories of young people with new-age skills to harness the youth power. Also, community positions for youth ensure social support and attachment, alongside generating social capital that can be tracked and tagged to young individuals. #IndiaNeedYouthSpaces: Youth Cafe, a model hugely successful in Ireland have created an impact at grassroots and has enabled many young people and adolescents to identify their talents early when they attain puberty. Youth Cafes have also enabled spaces where youth have openly talked about the matters of civic importance on one hand and acted on them, while involved themselves in recreational and collaborative activities on the other. The spaces have played an important role in providing the youth an opportunity to attain much-needed leadership skills as they grow to become responsible adults. Similarly, We also wish this kind of solutions to engage and empower youth can lead to positive changes around the community and in India and World at large.

References: UN World Youth Report / NYP 2014 / IYC Report '19 / BBC News India

PR for 📣Social Activism

By: Aishwarya Thapa ( Launchpad Communications)

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Any social activism starts out with a simple bottom line, communicating a piece of information that you believe in, to another person in the hope that you can convince them.

Having worked as a PR manager for multiple social campaigns, I understand that activism is a

spectrum, it comes in different shapes and sizes, but any activism that receives media support

always comes out on top for effective impact. Today I’ve put together my learning of how any micro; small to medium scale social activist/organisation can optimize media support to increase the volume of their message.

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Why Media Support?

The fastest way to reach large audiences today is online media (web publications), print media

(newspaper, radio, magazines) or electronic media (television, radio), the order of reach would

change depending on your audience.

I have met many activists who are doing great things on ground, using social media wonderfully, but aren’t seeing mass reach and new audiences. I believe that, this void can be filled by PR. Many associate a PR activity only with high profile companies who need to ‘manage the media’ but that’s quite inaccurate. Here’s what will happen if you ignore PR, you may be doing everything right but there’s no one telling the world that, this leads to the uncomfortable situation of catching up to a competitor’s narrative of the industry.

Use PR for a social campaign of ANY size to create strategic communication while leaving an

impact on a relevant TG, specifically, using the media as a tool.

PR Thinking during Planning Stage - PR Thinking

Let me bust a myth at the beginning, most causes/activists decide the campaign/event and then

think of how to get media attention. Don’t expect effective PR if you’re not thinking of a PR angle

from the start. A PR thinking cap requires keeping two people in mind – your target audience and

the media publications they consume.

You are the best judge of what your audience would find interesting, but I can tell you what the

media is essentially looking for:

- Relevance

- Unique proposition

In order to ensure what you are pitching is relevant and unique, ask yourself two questions:

- Is my message and CTA clear

- Am I executing my event or packaging my message differently/uniquely

A. Is my message and CTA clear

Whether you’re organizing an online campaign, an offline campaign or an event, remember to

peel off the layers and pick one main message and call to action. This helps your audience and

the media immediately understand your message. This main message should resonate with a

problem being faced in the NOW.

Example:

Campaign: Down Syndrome Awareness Rally, Chennai

Message: Raise Awareness about Down Syndrome

CTA: Join the rally at Besant Nagar Beach on Sunday

VS

Campaign: Down Syndrome Awareness Rally, Chennai

Message: Show parents that inclusivity is COOL, bring your kids out to play at the beach with kids

with Down Syndrome.

CTA: On World Down Syndrome Day, enjoy a beautiful morning at the beach with games, music,

and the waves, with kids with DS. #InclusionisCool

B. Am I executing my event or packaging my message differently/uniquely

Look at your contemporaries supporting other causes or similar causes and make it your aim to

come up with something totally different. Get creative and package your message in a way that

makes you stand out to your audience and to the media.

Example: The Down Syndrome Rally, on World Down Syndrome Day, the team had booked

Besant Nagar beach on a Sunday morning when it’s most packed, we had a band, we had actor

Sai Pallavi come in and speak for the cause, we had all the kids with DS enter from the ocean

which was a lovely photo opportunity, we had a float on the road with an MC engaging the

passer bys and more. So from an audience POV it was a Sunday beautifully merged together with fun and learning. From a media perspective, it was relevant because of the date, there was a huge crowd of 1000+ people, the beach in the morning made for a lovely backdrop, the music and the kids dancing made for amazing photos.

Example: Ranjini Srikantan, a 12th Grader from Bangalore discovered the benefits of Green

Chemistry in school and wondered why more corporations didn’t use it? Her objective was to

spread awareness but here’s how we executed it, along with using a website, social media, and

pamphlets, we knew we needed something different – something that would make people stop

and look up to this young, 17 year old thought leader. We found out that the Industrial Green

Chemistry World Conference was coming up in Delhi. She connected with them about her

initiative and was invited to speak! She prepared a speech that stunned the audiences filled with

CEOs of huge corporations from around the world!

Media Liaison: Now that we’ve covered the basics of PR thinking at the planning stage let’s move to the execution. Once again, to reiterate, I have collated the most practical method for activists without any PR reps or relatively new PR reps. The media liaison process takes a minimum of 1 month, start accordingly.

1. Identify where your audience is:

Identify the medium through which your audience consumes information, is it the

newspaper, is it web publications, is it television, radio, is it a combination of these?

2. Identify the right journalists:

Every publication has editorial departments with tight deadlines and stories planned ahead

for days. Take time to go through your selected media and track it for at least a week or two.

Shortlist the section in the media that your story would fit in, would it be the ‘City Section’,

‘Event Section’, ‘Weekend Supplement’, etc. Note down the name of the journalist who

writes about social causes, city events, or human interest features. This step is pivotal, you

will find no response to emails or calls to any journalist from a publication if it’s not from

their section/beat.

3. Plan the timing: The timing of the coverages is key to ensure it actually makes an impact to

your campaign. For example: If you’ve planned an event, aim for pre event and post event

coverages. If it’s a social campaign, aim for the coverages to come out as soon as the

campaign is live and keep it sustained for a few weeks. (Media samples A6, A7)

4. Connect:

The fastest way is to pick up the phone and call the office, if you don’t get through to the

journalist directly you will at least be able to get an email id to contact them at. You can also

try looking them up on social media and dropping them a message.

5. Create customized pitch notes for your campaign by including these key details:

- Why are you contacting Journalist X specifically? (So they know this isn’t some mass

email)

- Who are you (Add a tiny intro to yourself so the journalist can get some context about

your credibility)

- What is the relevance of your social cause/campaign? (Briefly explain what your cause is

and why it’s relevant right now.)

- How is your campaign a must do/must visit/must read (Back up your campaign with

facts, figures, insights that are unique)

- End with a call to action (how do you want this journalist to help you?)

6. Keep a press kit ready: A document with information about your organization/campaign, the

founders and good quality images. Be extremely thorough with the language in this

document, it will decide how the journalists perceives you and writes about you to their

audience. Don’t forget to provide clear call to action for your audience. (website, social

media links, email address, phone number, etc)

7. Be quick: Provide journalists with what they need for their story as quickly as possible, they

are on tight deadlines.

Media Coverage Leverage:

Always send a personal thank you message to the journalist for choosing to share your story

amongst hundreds of others they would have been pitched. If you had a good experience with the journalist and the journalist also shared an interest in your cause, let them know you’ll keep them posted with future activities. Do NOT abuse the journalist contact with irrelevant messages or information.

What you do with the coverage after it’s out helps you build a foundation of credibility for years to come.

- Leverage the coverage by sharing it within your professional, personal and social

networks.

- Add it as a permanent fixture to your website

- If you have a physical space, frame it up!

I believe, the key advantage of any type of PR effort is, best case scenario your message goes viral (by viral I mean, it gets its due attention) and worst case scenario you get to hold on to the

credibility of being featured in the media. In between are your well deserved results like – getting

new inquiries, building new followers, increased good will with stakeholders, increased motivation within the team, a window to being thought leaders and taking control of a narrative.

By: Aishwarya Thapa ( Launchpad communications )

Infodemic: The Role Politicians Play

With the pandemic having created havoc throughout the entire world,

infodemic is what threatens the globe next.

Infodemic is a fake information pandemic when your mind is bombarded by

appealing headlines which though, turn out to be a massive disappointment

later.

COVID-19 death tolls have been continuing for almost half a year now after it

spread in last November from the suspicious Wuhan. While pandemic is

something, we must keep ourselves safe from at this hour, when India has

seen massive rises in the figures of death tolls, staying safe from blunt and

provocative information is equally important.

Politicians have a major role to play in spreading false information and

advertising wrong campaigns throughout the globe, creating havoc.

Talking about Brazil, President Jair Bolsenaro is least worried about his

people. He feels like he’s on his way to contest the Presidential elections

sooner.

In an advert move to save himself and his family from the accusations that

have been brought against him, he has been trying to lure his supporters by

moving out on the streets without a mask, maintaining no social distancing

and disregarding the norms specified by top health organisations across the

globe.(1)

He necessarily isn’t afraid of catching COVID-19 himself, because the

accusations that have been brought against him are deeply rooted and are

bound to bring his presidentship down.

At this hour, he feels it is more important to keep the supporters engaged and

as the President of one of the largest South American Countries, he

organises protests against his own governmental policies of creating

awareness for COVID.

What has been the consequence?

Last week, Brazil media sources reported of lakhs of graves being dug up

and thousands of dead bodies being put into it, maximum being those who

responded with affirmation and supported the President’s Political

propaganda.

In the United States similarly, when the death toll takes massive accession,

the President calls himself a war time President and asks his people to use

an untested Hydroxychloroquine for their COVID treatment, claiming that it

can heal anyone affected.

He also claimed, in front of the media, that he himself was on a regular

Hydroxy treatment. (2)

However, after the drug caused widespread deaths in the United States, the

President withdrew his claims saying he’d never been on hydroxy! He’s one

of the worst presidents the United States has ever seen. With almost no

claims that have truthful evidences, Trump is a complete ludicrous person.

Earlier he claimed that taking in dettol and Lysol , two disinfectants, could

help cure COVID-19. When people began consuming the same, Dettol itself

had to release guidelines on the same, labelling the president’s demands as

baseless and utter lies. (3)

Talking about a UFO issue that Sehaj has talked about in the earlier blog, with

a video attached, there was an official declaration by the Pentagon regarding

the sightings with which came this video, attached. (4)

Was it all a propaganda to turn away the attention from the hospitals turning

into morgues or is it Trump’s Election mandate 2020, where he desires to

revitalise the white supremacy once again?!

Amid the chaos, Iran has performed something exasperating! They’ve used

spurious liquor on advice of the diocese.

They poured in gallons of spurious liquors , mixed with ethyl, into people,

making them believe that this would cure Coronavirus. Such a rubbish

information led to several hundreds of deaths in the country. (5)

Talking about our own India, there have been reports from various sources

across Bengal, Orissa and Bihar that people have taken to putting mud and

gobar on their forehead to combat the virus. (6)

Amazing, right?

In this aeon of globalisation and industrialisation, when internet and correct

information is just a click away, these people are still fooled when their

government gives them certain directions.

Such mayhem is because they never keep themselves aware of the

happenings around the globe and neither do they have any information about

what to do and what to not.

It is very important to remember that COVID is a virus. It does not

differentiate between a president and a common man.

However, we must make ourselves self aware of such happenings and

whatever the government says, should try to keep ourselves protected

individually, if we fail to do it as a community. Only then can such ridiculous

happenings cease to take place.

By: Souhardya De

(The views expressed in the article are the author’s own. Indian Youth Cafe neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

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References:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2020/may/18/bolsonaro-greets-anti-

lockdown-protesters-as-coronavirus-cases-rise-in-brazil-video

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52717161

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/04/24/dettol-and-lysol-maker-

warns-against-drinking-and-injecting-disinfectant-after-trump-

suggestion/#43847d8746a5

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/04/27/heres-why-the-

pentagon-officially-released-ufo-video-footage/#11757f921a6a

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/iran-700-dead-drinking-alcohol-

cure-coronavirus-200427163529629.html

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/coronavirus-

effect-cow-dung-urine-sell-for-rs-500/articleshow/74669478.cms?from=mdr