Government & public programme

IMT Car Rally Flag-off

How the India-Myanmar-Thailand Friendship Motor Car Rally 2016 was covered at the Lucknow flag-off and beyond — rallyist outreach, a quote-led release with route dates, and coverage at national and international levels.

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Documented project
01The brief
02The work
03Coverage and outcomes

Factual accounts with documented outcomes.

Organisation
Indian Chamber of Commerce with Government of India ministries
Location
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
International rally / November 2016

The India–Myanmar–Thailand (IMT) Friendship Motor Car Rally 2016 was flagged off from the India Gate lawns in Delhi on 13 November 2016, beginning the run to Bangkok through Myanmar and Thailand. Two days later, on 15 November, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav flagged off the rally's Lucknow leg — and PRS coordinated the communication around it.

The brief

The rally is a joint endeavour of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and the Government of India — the ministries of Road Transport and Highways, External Affairs, Tourism, the Department of Development of North Eastern Region and the ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, together with state governments. The story had to present it as a serious step towards the IMT Motor Vehicle Agreement: opening cargo and passenger movement through the corridor, promoting trade, investment, tourism, culture and historical linkage, and stitching Indian states, the Northeast and Southeast Asia together by road.

For Uttar Pradesh, the Lucknow flag-off was itself news: the state's Chief Minister presented UP as a progressive state and the first Indian state to flag off an event of this kind.

Media work

The programme ran on four lines:

  1. Rallyist outreach. We informanced the car-rallyist community directly, so participation in the run itself stayed high.
  2. Quote-led release. The press release was drafted around the IMT Motor Vehicle Agreement and the international-relations statements of the ministries and chambers behind it.
  3. Share the timeline. The release carried the route dates and the rally's completion schedule, so newspapers that could not travel with the convoy could still file the story at every stage.
  4. Social amplification. Stories, interviews and quotes were circulated widely as the rally moved, keeping the corridor in the feed between checkpoints.

Coverage and outcomes

National and international

Coverage landed within the country and outside it, across the markets the three governments wanted the agreement to reach.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 papers

Newspapers carried the economic line: how the rally would improve economic and trade relations along the corridor.

Public response

The response at national and international levels was enthusiastic, and appreciation moved through social media alongside the conventional press.

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