The Lead India campaign, which started off as a print product and later crossed over to TV, has become quite the darling of the ad fraternity. While the high profile print and outdoor campaigns were blasted across metros, this Agencyfaqs article gives an overview of how winner, RK Misra, used SMS tools to garner votes. MyToday, which claims to have 3 million subscribers, split 70 characters of their subscriber message shootouts soliciting users to vote for Misra through a shortcode. There is no mention on the number of votes garnered though. Times has a microsite dedicated to Lead India, along with a page for user generated content (Lead.India.Video.Entry) with a cash reward for Best Video (entries here)

Misra, who is an old school techie and an IIT Kanpur grad, has a blog at rajendramisra.blogspot.com, last updated on Jan 26, 2008, the day he won. There are plans for a social network (with a cause) at Changeindia.in (to-be-launched March 1). The site is supposed to “provide members with email IDs… create personal pages…a platform for connecting people who want to start a development project or want to fund one…discussion forums.” I presume the email ids will be a call for entry for Indiatimes Mail and the social network, part of a larger plan. The recent Indiatimes Mail TV commercial projects a suit of services mapped under one id, ala Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Watch this space for updates when the site is launched tomorrow.