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By:

Prateek Sethi

1 October 2024 at 3:15:42 am

Too Much Content, Too Little Craft

In the age of user-generated content, Indian automotive brands must rediscover the craft of storytelling amid a sea of visual noise. By 2026, India’s automotive brands are producing more visual content than at any point in their history. Scroll through social-media feeds and one encounters an endless stream of gleaming SUVs tackling Himalayan passes, hatchbacks threading through monsoon traffic, and owners proudly posing beside their new machines. Launch calendars are crowded. Marketing...

Too Much Content, Too Little Craft

In the age of user-generated content, Indian automotive brands must rediscover the craft of storytelling amid a sea of visual noise. By 2026, India’s automotive brands are producing more visual content than at any point in their history. Scroll through social-media feeds and one encounters an endless stream of gleaming SUVs tackling Himalayan passes, hatchbacks threading through monsoon traffic, and owners proudly posing beside their new machines. Launch calendars are crowded. Marketing pipelines rarely rest. User-generated content (UGC) pours in from every corner of the country.   On the surface this abundance looks like progress. Engagement numbers are strong. Real owners are visible. Brands appear present in everyday life rather than confined to glossy advertisements. In a market where purchase decisions are often shaped by peer opinion as much as by engineering specifications, the rise of UGC seems both natural and welcome.   But beneath the sheer volume lies a growing problem. While automotive brands have embraced participation, many have diluted coherence. The result is a visual ecosystem rich in quantity, but increasingly inconsistent in quality, tone and intent. Faked authenticity has been prioritized and often at the cost of craft, clarity, and brand memory. Visual storytelling, once shaped by deliberate craft, has become fragmented.   The next phase of automotive storytelling in India will not be about choosing between professional production and user-generated spontaneity. It will be about learning how to shape both.   The UGC paradox User-generated content has undeniably transformed automotive communication. After all, nothing conveys credibility quite like a real owner describing a long highway drive, or capturing a dusty trail from behind the wheel.   In India, this authenticity carries particular weight as buyers often rely heavily on community recommendations.   Yet, today, brands are encountering what might be called the ‘UGC paradox’ wherein engagement is high, but recall is weak. Content is abundant, yet visual identity is fragile and coherent storytelling becomes harder to sustain. Over time the brand ceases to speak and instead merely hosts.   Part of the problem lies in the relentless pressure to remain visible. Digital platforms reward frequency and algorithms favour those who post constantly. For marketing teams, the temptation to keep feeding the machine is strong.   But brands are not algorithms and visibility alone is not communication. In India’s fiercely competitive automotive market, where mechanical differences between vehicles are narrowing and emotional appeal increasingly shapes purchasing decisions, indiscriminate content production carries real strategic risks.   Endless Content The first is the erosion of premium perception. Even mass-market brands rely on a certain aura of aspiration. When a brand’s feed becomes a chaotic mix of uncurated images and videos, that aura can quietly fade.   The second is the loss of visual distinctiveness. When every manufacturer shares the same kinds of owner clips - cars against sunsets, SUVs splashing through puddles, interiors filmed from shaky phones - brands begin to resemble one another.   The third risk concerns the most important marketing moment of all: product launches. These are events where companies invest heavily in production, messaging and design. Yet when surrounded by a constant stream of casual content, even these carefully orchestrated narratives struggle to stand out.   This is where the older discipline of visual stewardship needs rediscovering.   Production houses and visual-communication specialists were once central to automotive storytelling. Their role was not simply to film cars attractively but to translate engineering, aspiration and lifestyle into coherent visual narratives.   In the era of UGC, their relevance is returning but in a different form. The real purpose of great production lies in knowing which moments to elevate and which to leave untouched; understanding how raw material can be refined without losing its authenticity.   In a content environment saturated with owner footage and community contributions, curation counts. Someone must decide which user stories genuinely reflect the brand’s character and which do not.  These decisions cannot be made solely through dashboards or engagement graphs.   The craft of visual storytelling which is shaped by taste, cultural awareness and production experience remains indispensable. There persists a common suspicion that professional production inevitably undermines authenticity. Many marketers fear that involving specialists will ‘over-script’ reality or sterilise spontaneous moments.   Hybrid Approach In practice the opposite is often true. Modern production is less about control than direction. Rather than replacing real voices, skilled production partners can function as narrative editors. Their role is to translate everyday experiences into stories that carry emotional clarity and visual coherence. A subtle change in framing or a more deliberate rhythm of editing can transform a simple owner clip into something memorable.   This matters particularly in India, where visual cues often carry layered cultural meanings. Aspirational imagery, landscape symbolism and everyday lifestyle markers shape how audiences interpret a brand. Finesse, in other words, is not artificial. It is intentional.   The most future-ready automotive brands in India will not abandon UGC. They will architect around it. This hybrid approach allows brands to scale authenticity without sacrificing identity.   Production houses and visual communication experts play a critical role here in ensuring those voices collectively sound like the brand. Today, the most progressive automotive brands in India will recognize a simple truth that authenticity does not mean absence of craft.   As visual noise increases, brands that invest in refinement, coherence and storytelling leadership will stand apart.   User voices will remain essential, but without expert stewardship, they risk becoming fleeting moments of noise rather than lasting brand equity. And the role of production houses and visual communication specialists, far from diminishing, is evolving into something far more strategic as guardians of quality in an age of excess.   (The writer is founder and creative director at Trip Creative Services, an award-winning communication design house. Views personal.)

Dr. K. L. Shrimali: The Unsung Hero of Indian Education

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Dr. K. L. Shrimali: The Unsung Hero of Indian Education

While history is filled with many influential figures, they eventually fade from public memory. However, there are a few whose legacies continue to shape the nation. One such figure is Dr. Kalu Lal Shrimali, India’s second education minister. Surprisingly, his legacy has been overlooked, a recent inaccurate claim by a prominent Rajya Sabha MP and former Deputy CM claim on social media that India’s first five Education Ministers were from the Muslim community. This Teachers’ Day, we revisit the life and work of Dr. Shrimali—a Hindu Brahmin born in 1909 in Udaipur, Rajasthan. He served under the Prime Ministership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He passed away on 5th January 2000.

It is both surprising and disheartening to witness how quickly a figure like Dr. Shrimali, who was hailed by President Dr. Pranab Mukherjee as the forefather of Indian education, has been so quickly forgotten. This Teachers’ Day, we remember the man who introduced ‘Teachers’ Day’ in schools to honour his predecessor, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.

Dr. Shrimali, a distinguished educationist and parliamentarian, made significant contributions as the Union Minister of Education for the Government of India from 1955 to 1963. He completed his education at Banaras Hindu University, Calcutta University, and Columbia University in New York, establishing a strong academic foundation that fuelled his passion for education reforms in India.

His tenure as the Education Minister was marked by a deep commitment to educational reform and institution-building. Dr. Shrimali’s legacy as a ‘forefather’ of Indian education is rooted in his visionary approach, which sought to balance the need for modernisation with the cultural and social context of India.

Dr. Shrimali was instrumental in the establishment and expansion of several higher education institutions. Under his leadership, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were further developed and new ones were established, laying the groundwork for what would become India’s premier technical education institutions.

He supported the creation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act of 1956. This Act empowered the UGC to oversee and regulate higher education in India, ensuring the maintenance of standards, the promotion of research and quality education.

Recognising the need for a skilled workforce to drive India’s industrialisation, Dr. K.L. Shrimali emphasised the importance of technical and vocational education. He championed the establishment of Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs), which were precursors to the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), to address the regional imbalances in access to quality technical education.

He was an advocate for adult education and literacy, particularly in rural areas. He promoted several literacy programs aimed at reducing the high illiteracy rates in the country, believing that education was a key driver of social and economic progress.

Beyond his ministerial duties, Dr. Shrimali was actively involved with various educational institutions. He founded the iconic Vidhya Bhavan in Udaipur and social welfare organisations like the Seva Mandir. He was the editor of Jan Shikshan, a monthly educational magazine. He also authored several publications where he highlighted the challenges and opportunities in Indian education, influencing public opinion and policy discussions. In 1963, he resigned from the Congress. However, his passion for education continued. After resigning from the ministry, he served as the Vice Chancellor of Mysore University and Banaras Hindu University.

Dr. Shrimali played a key role in implementing the recommendations of the Secondary Education Commission (1952-1953) and prepared the groundwork for future reforms that included the Kothari Commission’s report (1964-1966). His advocacy for the three-language formula and the importance of moral and character education helped shape the curriculum and policy directions that India would follow for decades. His contributions to education were recognised through numerous awards and honours, including the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 1976. His work continues to be celebrated.

(The writer is a grand daughter of K.L. Shrimali. Views personal)

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