Use of science key to persuasion in the new normal world

“Use of insights and data driven communication is the key to creating persuasive communication that moves the needle of opinion and gets people to act.” said well-known reputation management strategist, Ashwani Singla, addressing the students of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai at their annual media conference.

Ashwani, who was the campaign strategist of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) highly successful campaign for General election of 2014, recently founded Astrum, India’s first science-based specialist Reputation Management advisory.

Speaking at the event, Ashwani, Founding Managing Partner of Astrum said, “data driven reputation management is the future. He added, “understanding what makes people tick is as important as the ways to reach them. Blending science with creativity helps shape the story that engages and persuades.”

Citing the example from the BJP’s election campaign strategy for 2014, Ashwani stressed on the key elements that drove the highly successful campaign. Elaborating these steps, he opined that the first step was to identify the ‘persuadable’ from amongst a large & diverse set of voter; followed by an understanding of their ‘motivation drivers’ that shaped the ‘relevant & believable storyline’ which was delivered through ‘holistic engagement platforms’.

To unearth the insights needed to devise the strategy, Ashwani and his team conducted the largest every voter polling exercises covering over 3,00,00,00 voters in over 350 Lok Sabha seats and undertook booth level polling data analytics of the constituencies polled over two Lok Sabha elections.

About Astrum

Astrum is India’s first science-based specialist Reputation Management advisory.

Astrum in Latin means the brightest star in its constellation. The purpose of every Astrum professional is to help each of our clients become ‘that star’.

Astrum works as a strategic partner to the C-Suite, helping them resolve complex challenges they face in building and guarding their companies’ reputation. Applying the same science, Astrum helps senior political leaders connect with voters to be elected to a public office, keep the mandate and get re-elected. Astrum is leading the way by weaving creativity into the Science of Reputation to understand and shape public opinion.

Our specializations include Reputation Management, Crisis & Issues Communication, Corporate Affairs, Corporate Governance, Voter Targeting, Candidate Positioning, Campaign Messaging and Voter Sentiment Tracking. Astrum is an insight-driven Digital First advisory, with its emphasis on harnessing the power of the mobile phone and the Internet to engage stakeholders and shape opinions.

Astrum serves clients in the NCR and Mumbai through its own presence, and spans 60 cities and towns in India through its dedicated affiliate network.

Along with a high-calibre team of practicing professionals, Ashwani Singla founded Astrum. Ashwani is the former Asia CEO of Penn Schoen Berland. In his two-decade experience in the industry, he has donned the roles of a trusted advisor and a strategist for both the C-Suite and political leaders. He has successfully steered many a blue chip multinational and Indian corporation through crisis.

Ashwani acted as the Campaign Strategist for the campaign committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the 2014 General Elections in India. He was featured in the Campaign India Magazine’s ‘A List’ and Agency FAQ’s listings of the Most Influential Communication Professionals in India.