Introduction
Recently, the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) has engaged in a series of innovative digital campaigns to brand Indian agricultural and cultural heritage while portraying the country’s array of top-quality products before a global audience through creative online storytelling. Among others, the two main campaigns include the Discover India’s Recipe Contest, which called upon home chefs from around the world to discover new recipes using Indian ingredients, and a GI awareness campaign, which puts a spotlight on India’s regional specialties. These programs are social-media-driven and include collaborations with influencers and targeted advertisements for increasing the strength of the export brand of India and bringing it into global markets.
Digital campaign
In late 2024, IBEF launched the “Discover India” recipe contest, celebrating Indian cuisine as an invitation to all home chefs across the globe to submit new recipes made with Indian ingredients. The response was staggering; more than a thousand creative dishes were submitted that combined traditional flavours with contemporary styles. Most of these recipes were featured on social media by IBEF with the use of colourful posts highlighting ingredients such as millets, aromatic basmati rice, tropical fruits, organic spices and chai.
Social media posts with celebrity chef’s showcase
IBEF amplified the campaign through influencer collaborations. Four MasterChef winners, Gurkirat Singh, Nayanjyoti Roy, Nazia Sultana, and Chef Tyson, promoted Indian recipes through different videos. The celebrity chef videos indeed helped with/promoted visibility of the contest since they collectively had hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram (one reel alone crossing around 3,00,000 views).
Recipes posted on social media
The contest also featured standout home-cooked recipes on IBEF’s social channels. These ranged from sweet to savoury creations, each offering a unique fusion of Indian and global flavours.
Campaign highlights and results
- Over a thousand recipes were submitted by home chefs worldwide.
- Social media posts for the contest reached millions, sparking widespread engagement.
- Google Ads drew significant traffic to the contest page, indicating strong interest.
- Videos by the featured MasterChef chefs collectively earned hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram.
Geographical Indications (GI) awareness campaign
In early 2025, IBEF ran a digital campaign to promote India’s Geographical Indications (GI)—products with regional heritage. The GI Facebook page saw millions of impressions and reached millions of users, while GI content on IBEF’s main Facebook page gained even broader exposure. Engagement was robust, with tens of thousands of interactions, and the GI page’s follower base grew substantially.
A Facebook post about the “Nachiarkoil Kuthuvilakku” (a traditional bronze lamp) earned the highest engagement on both pages, garnering thousands of reactions, followed by popular posts on the Guntur Sannam chili, Mysore silk, and Bhagalpur silk. A video of skilled artisans at work drew substantial attention, and a story featuring Goan cashews was among the most watched content.
The GI campaign on Instagram also fared very well with more than four million impressions, over two million accounts reached, and hundreds and thousands of interactions. The most engaging Instagram post was a dynamic reel on the Chenda drum showcasing Kerala’s rhythmic tradition, while the behind-the-scenes video of artisans at work was the top-viewed content.
Social media series
IBEF rolled out a social media series highlighting diverse GI treasures from across India. These posts took followers on a journey from Himalayan specialities like Ladakh seabuckthorn and Kashmiri saffron to traditional crafts such as Mathura’s sanjhi art and Chamba rumal shawls. The series celebrated regional cultures with products like Kullu shawls, Banaras thandai, and Ramban Sulai honey.
Paid media performance and reach
IBEF complemented the organic efforts with targeted social media advertising. During the Discover India Recipe Contest (late 2024 to early 2025), sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram garnered millions of impressions and reached a vast audience. The contest video ads accumulated millions of views, with some ad variants showing high engagement.
Similarly, Facebook ads for the GI campaign reached millions of people and delivered tens of millions of impressions. These paid campaigns achieved strong click-through rates, underscoring IBEF’s effective use of digital advertising to amplify reach and engagement.
Government Programs and Policies Supporting Indian Exports
The Indian government implemented several policies to strengthen the export system and increase the global recognition of Indian brands. Indian companies can avail of support for expanding into foreign markets through initiatives that offer funding, build infrastructure and marketing plans, and implement reform laws. This section examines initiatives from the Indian government that aim to increase export growth.
- Advance Authorization Scheme
Advance Authorization (AA) is an import duty-exemption scheme under India’s Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) that allows exporters to import raw materials and components duty-free for manufacturing export goods. Inputs must be physically integrated into the final export product (after accounting for normal wastage) and final exports must have at least 15% domestic value addition. Authorizations are valid for 12 months to import inputs; exporters must fulfil their export obligation within 18 months of issue. The scheme applies to manufacturing exporters and to merchant exporters linked with domestic manufacturers. It thereby lowers input costs for exporters while imposing clear export commitments.
- Zero Duty EPCG Scheme
Zero Duty EPCG is a capital goods import scheme under India’s FTP that permits duty-free import of machinery and equipment to bolster export competitiveness. Under this scheme, exporters must fulfil an export obligation equal to six times the customs duty saved, to be completed within six years of import. If imported capital goods are procured domestically, the export obligation is reduced by 25%. By offsetting import duties on equipment, the scheme helps firms upgrade capacity with lower investment costs and stimulates technological upgradation and export competitiveness. It lowers barriers to capital investment while tying benefits to higher export targets.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research. The views expressed by the spokespersons are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of IBEF. IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
