MICA (Institute of Strategic Marketing and Communication)

History

MICA was established in 1991 by A.G. Krishnamurthy of Mudra Communications, as an autonomous post graduate academic institute. It was intially set up to feed the Indian advertising industry with trained persons but over the years it has evolved into a Scool of Ideas that caters to the need for strategic management and communication in the industry. The main academic block was inaugurated in 1993 and MICA relocated to its current campus at Shela. It was also the year in which its first Director Dr. Binod C Agrawal began his tenure. The first flagship batch of PGPD program in Communications was inaugurated by the then Governor of Gujarat, Sh. Sarup Singh in 1994. Atul Tandon served as director from 2001 to 2009.

Over the course of the next 20 years, the CCC, Online PG Certificate and FPM programs were introduced.

The last President, Mr. Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO and MD of the DDB Mudra Group, stepped down from his post in January, in anticipation of a new direction of leadership for MICA. Interim Director Tridip Suhrud, who is a member of MICA's Governing Council and the Director and Chief Editor of Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust is currently holding office.

New visual identity

The refreshed visual identity, unveiled at the 19th Convocation, is a marriage of the constant evolution of the institute and the universality of the Fibonacci spiral. Since 1991, MICA has been symbolized by the dual triangles. In its recent brand refresh, the institution adopted a new logo whose basis lies in the Fibonacci spiral. The Fibonacci principle is the most powerful explanation of the scientific basis behind all natural art forms and the spiral best explains the harmony in the universe. In nature, The Fibonacci spiral allows an organism to grow while maintaining the original shape. Adopting this principle to the MICA logo, the science of strategic marketing exists in the primary symbol i.e. the triangle, and the art of communication finds its manifestation in the flexibility to constantly evolve. The unlocked triangles allow for openness and dialogue, yet maintain a strong connection amongst the many stakeholders. The colour red symbolizes strength, passion, commitment and dedication to a cause, a purpose, a focus - an equal and simultaneous focus on people, planet and profit.

Campus

Situated in the outskirts of the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad, MICA is salvation for nature lovers. The lush green sprawling campus is home to diverse flora and fauna which make life at MICA serene. It enables the students to find themselves at ease even at the most hectic hours. The Chhota Canteen forms an integral part of the campus. It is a 24 hour canteen which offers a variety of food both vegetarian and non vegetarian. Moreover, the campus offers many recreational facilities to the students in the form of a football field, cricket field, badminton court, lawn tennis court, basketball court, volleyball court, and an open air theatre.

Courses offered

MICA offers the following programmes:

Postgraduate Diploma in Management (Communications)

The Postgraduate Diploma in Management (Communications) PGDM (C) is the flagship programme of MICA equivalent to an MBA. It is a two-year residential programme for the study of Integrated Marketing Communications management.

The strength of this programme lies in its strong and contemporary curriculum, the knowledge and experience of the core and visiting faculty, the exposure to the industry and the diverse profiles of the students. The PGDM-C curriculum is flexible and is updated annually in consultation with practicing managers, to ensure the inclusion of current practices and cases. The students are thus, exposed to the latest domain knowledge in the relevant areas. The constant revision of the PGDM-C course matter is the key to ensuring that MICA remains the best Strategic Marketing and Communication school in India. MICAs MBA programme in strategic marketing and communications is rated as the best sectoral MBA in India by BusinessWorld magazine.

The programme offers specializations in the areas of

Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Crafting Creative Communications

This one-year programme leads to a certificate in Crafting Creative Communications with specialisation in Crafting Copywriting or Art Direction, depending on the module chosen by the student. A one of its kind creative course, the main objective of this programme is to develop students into professionals for careers in Advertising and Marketing Communications.

A programme specially designed for people who want to pursue a career as Ideators. Today, the need is for conceptual thinkers who are also 'executors'. In other words, Ideators are more than just copywriters, art directors, designers, TV commercials makers or even web designers.

Online Postgraduate Certificate Programmes

MICA offers skills enhancement programmes. The institute offers the following programmes as part of this initiative:

Advertising Management and Public Relations

A one-year online course including a campus visit for junior and middle level executives interested in the field of advertising and public relations.

The course aims at skill as well as perspective building for junior and middle level executives in the domain of Advertising Management. It seeks to deliver skills for managing advertising businesses, by combining theoretical learning in the field of communication with the right blend of management education.

Research and Data Analytics

A one-year online course for students to foster objective data analysis strategies, apply critical thinking skills to data analysis, generate and validate solutions to a problem and communicate findings.

The decision-making process in a modern business environment has transformed. It is now based on market research and data analytics. This transformation is also aided by professional excellence in market research & data analytics, by IT-enabled services (ITES), business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, business intelligence, knowledge management and market research companies.

Digital Marketing

This one-year course has been designed with an objective to familiarize participants with key aspects of digital marketing. The participant is expected to gain working knowledge in digital marketing domain and develop an understanding of the framework within online marketing businesses and its operations.

Retail management

A one-year online course for executives with an acumen and interest in Retail Management. The program has been designed in close consultation with the industry to prepare entry-level and experienced professionals for a career in Retail Management.

Marketing & Brand Management

This one-year programme is designed with an aim to provide students with a 360-degree view of various practical and applicable aspects of marketing and brand management that includes understanding different types of markets, competition, buyer behaviour and brand building. A sound understanding of such fundamentals helps students appreciate concepts of segmentation, targeting, positioning differentiating, pricing and branding strategies which are necessary to design effective marketing and branding strategies for the organization. The programme concludes with sessions on integrated communication and digital marketing which are extremely relevant in the growing e-world.

Fellow Program in Management-Communications (FPM-C)

The Fellow Programme at MICA is the first Programme of its kind in the country. It is an AICTE approved doctoral level interdisciplinary programme. Through this programme, MICA aims to encourage both fundamental and applied research in the communication and marketing domain.

Faculty, Pedagogy and Mentorship

MICA receives visiting faculty from other institutions, and practitioners from the advertising, marketing, marketing research, public relations and media industry.

After Madhukar Kamath, group CEO and MD of DDB Mudra stepped down from his position as President at MICA, Dr. Tridip Suhrud, Director and Chief Editor of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust stepped in an interim President.

Dean: Preeti Shroff

Head of Admissions: Prof. Shubhra Gaur

Head of Research: Prof. Anita Basalingapa

The heads for different programmes offered at MICA are: Prof. Siddharth Deshmukh for Digital Communications; Prof. Falguni Vasavada-Oza for all Online Courses;and, Prof. Pravin Misra for CCC, Prof.Santosh Patra for Media and Prof. Mansisha Shelat for Communications.

Research

The institute's aim has been to conduct research in marketing and communications as applied to the needs of the industry. This is implemented through a series of Research Projects, Conferences and Colloquiums that are continually conducted at MICA.

KEIC

KEIC is the Knowledge Exchange and Information Center at MICA. KEIC is a unique place for accessing knowledge and research in Strategic Marketing and Communication. It is an exclusive centre dedicated to the collection, collation, and dissemination of knowledge and information on media, branding, advertising, marketing and communication. It has an effective information management system in place for efficient and uninterrupted information retrieval at any time.

Notable alumni

Incubator

MICA Incubator, India’s first communications technology-based incubator, which operated from an office near Parimal Garden since 2010, now has a new address. All the start-up incubatees associated with Mica Incubator will now operate from the institute’s campus at Shela with a grand inauguration ceremony, presided over by the chief town planner, PL Sharma.

“Incubation centres can help curb unemployment for the youth, who are willing to settle with respective jobs in urban cities,” said PL Sharma. The move will provide easy accessibility to students and will connect the incubated start-ups with faculty members, students and other staff thereby aiding the incubation centre to develop, nurture, promote and successfully commercialise ventures. MICA Incubator will also encourage students at MICA to mould their ideas which may materialise into successful ventures.

“We look forward to our students and alumni getting more involved in the incubation activities. Incubators now have access to our faculty, library facilities and support systems. This is the beginning of a new journey for MICA Incubator,” said professor UT Rao, chairperson, MICA Incubator.

Student Life

Students at MICA get ample opportunity to live an exciting life outside the class. The facilities available to the students include a gym, a recreation room, a football field, cricket field, badminton court, lawn tennis court, basketball court, volleyball court, and an open air theatre.

Moreover the students have complete creative freedom to design their own rooms and take up live projects alongside their coursework.

Over and above, the students have the option of joining committees which work throughout the year, handling different domains. They are as follows:

MCSA

MCSA is the officially recognised student body of MICA. All other committees come under the purview of MCSA and it liaisons between the students and the administration. It has been in existence since MICA's inception and consists of three members- President, General Secretary and Treasurer.

Placecomm

The Placement Cell or PlaceComm, as it is informally known is a robust and active committee at MICA. PlaceComm is the committee that helps fulfil the students' corporate dreams. The committee looks after pre-placement talks and organises all formal interactions between the students and corporates for summer and final placements. The placement cell is an ethical and transparent body. Being a part of this committee is a pride in itself as the selection process is rigorous to test a student’s dedication and stress level. Over the years, the committee has been successful in maintaining a record of 100% placements.

MICANVAS

The Micanvas committee organises the annual marketing management festival of MICA, where the best minds in the country meet and face off in an eclectic mix of formal and informal events and competitions. Over the years, Micanvas has been used as a platform, to bring together some of the most eminent professionals from the industry and the best brains from the top management schools in India and internationally, thus unleashing hidden talent. Micanvas not only looks after outside marketing but constantly engages the student body within Mica through its various events organised for the students.

Micanvas is a grand event conducted at a large scale and being a part of this committee gives the students an opportunity to get exposed to marketing, networking, pitching and negotiating.

Entrepreneurship Development Cell

The youngest committee at MICA, The Entrepreneurship Development Cell aims to foster and nurture talented young minds with a vision. With India witnessing the rise of startup culture, the committee encourages and guides anyone and everyone who is bitten by the entrepreneurs. Under the aegis of the MICA Incubator, the E Cell provides a platform for budding entrepreneurs to hone their skills and build sustainable relationships with their mentors in order to facilitate successful transitions towards launching their own ventures.

LitComm

The Literary Committee (LitComm) at MICA is charged with keeping the passion for the written word in all its forms alive on campus. The magnum opus of the committee is Reverie, the annual literary festival coupled with its lead event titled Authorspeak. The latter is a confluence of eminent authors and has featured the likes of Mallika Sarabhai and Piyush Mishra in the past.

Sankalp

Sankalp is the in-house theatre production society, where every activity associated with staging a play - acting, direction, sounds, lights, set design,music, marketing, managing the event - is carried out by students. The annual production started in 1999 is performed at the Natrani Theatre in Ahmedabad for three nights. Other intra-collegiate events like Khula Aasmaan, Showcase and Rangmanch are conducted throughout the year. The annual intercollegiate event conducted by Sankalp is called Mukhaute which was started in 2010 and happens in January.

Sports Committee at MICA The sports committee at MICA organizes sports events on campus throughout the year - football, tennis, table tennis, badminton, cricket, chess, throwball, volleyball, etc.

Their main event, Samar, was started in 2011 and is a national level sports meet for management schools that happens during the last week of February and spans 3 days.

MICA Lecture Series

MICA Lecture series organizes guest lectures for students by eminent industry leaders and prominent MICA alumni. Some of the speakers in the past include Rajdeep Endow, MD, Sapient India, Sonal Dabral, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra and Anil Agarwal, founder, Vedanta Group.

Studio 7

Studio 7 is a student committee on campus founded in 2012 to promote and facilitate music. It organizes concerts in association with SPICMACAY. Performers in the past have included stalwarts from the field of music such as. Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt and Norway's Karl Seglem Acoustic Quarter.

Team Interface

Team Interface is the media and PR wing of MICA. It handles a significant part of the communication concerning MICA that reaches its stakeholders. The committee members manage MICA’s social media properties and maintain and enhance contacts with the PRESS, ensuring that MICA is in the news for all the right reasons.

MICAMINDS

MICAMINDS, the research and consultancy cell at MICA strives to create opportunities that fulfil the aspirations of the industry, students and the guiding faculty. The live projects undertaken are an extension of the classroom learning and equip our students with hands-on experience.

Alumni Committee

For any elite institute, one of the major strengths is a strong alumni base. The MICA Alumni Committee dedicatedly functions to strengthen the bond between the institute and its alumni for a mutually beneficial relationship. This is leveraged not only by the existing students, but also by the alumni who might want to contribute and give back to their alma mater.

MICAVAANI

MICAVAANI is MICA’s own community radio station that operates on the frequency 90.4 FM. Here, students manage an independent media platform dedicated to social relevance. It transmits within a 7 km radius from the Institute. The student-run committee manages production, programming, research and marketing functions.

Jagriti

Jagriti is the Social Service Wing of MICA that began as a teaching initiative by the final year students of 2010. They started teaching workers at the MICA canteen and the mess daily. Gradually they expanded their scope of work and by year-end; they had made significant contributions to the society through several initiatives.

Culcomm

Mix cultures with a dash of the MICAn madness and what do you get? CulComm. Festival celebrations on campus with all its mirth and jovialty, bringing the entire campus together on special occasions and helping everyone bond warmly, bringing hidden talents to light via various cultural events- All of this is CulComm (MICA’s cultural committee).