Social Impact Measurement Needs A Dose Of Storytelling
Koushik Yanamandram along with Piyush Sohani founded SustainEarth Energy Solutions in September of 2013. They are on a mission to re-brand Biogas and deliver it as a ‘Clean, Affordable & Reliable’ cooking fuel to millions of rural communities in India thus making them independent and self-sufficient in their energy needs.
In October 2015, I shot an impact story for them in the village of Tanapalli, 140 kms from Chennai. This story featured a dairy farmer, Krishna Reddy as the protagonist and showcased the impact Gau Gas (SustainEarth’s new-age, innovative and low-cost Biogas system) had on his life. One day Koushik called to thank me. He said the video co-created by us was appreciated by investors and helped him secure funding. I felt a sense of satisfaction and vindication. In this article Koushik talks about how visual storytelling helped him.
Q. Sometime back you mentioned to me about showing an impact video we co-created to an investor. Can you describe the reaction of the investor and how it helped you secure funding.
KY: It’s always difficult to make the investors understand about the situations, surroundings and the people we work with in the rural areas. It’s hard for them to relate to it. Otherwise it takes a lot of time to make them feel the situation. Here comes the need of a video and a narrative that captures it all. When I showed the video to the investors, they were happy to see the work happening in a totally different world, away from them. Also testimonials and life stories interests them a lot than facts and figures. The video sets the context for the market segments we are trying to cater to.
Q. Do you think Visual Storytelling (Telling Field Impact or Startup journey stories through use of Videos,Photos etc.) can be a marketing tool for socents (social enterprises) and how?
KY: Definitely! For socents, impact is the core to it’s operations and when this is shown by capturing in a storytelling video, nothing like that. We have used the storytelling video at various platforms to showcase the use of our product. The users can relate to the story very much too. That helps a lot in marketing.
Q. According to you, what are the marketing priorities of a social startup like yours which intends to scale up rapidly very soon?
KY: Our focus in on offline marketing to reach our target audience- dairy farmers, households with livestock. But we also intend to use a lot of graphic design, videos and display materials for marketing. Our marketing campaigns include attending kisan melas and outreach camps in rural areas. So, we look forward to spending most of the marketing budget on demonstrations and awareness camps in rural communities.
Rohan
Chief Visual Storyteller @ One Life, One Passion & Chief Blogger @ Creatively UnsettledAn Engineer and MBA by training but a storyteller by choice.I am passionate about telling real, positive & meaningful stories of social good.I am also a zealous writer, a thinker, a continuous learner and a hands-on dad! Riding on a country-side road and sleeping under the stars is my rush. I had been featured in ’15 Inspired Young Indians Who Chose Their Dreams Over Stability’ by Homegrown- A youth media company powered by an online content platform.rohan@rohanpotdar.com
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