How HCL Is Using Classical Arts as Brand Glue

For nearly three decades, HCL Concerts has quietly done something unusual for a technology group: it has funded classical musicians and dancers, built digital content around ragas, and now plans fellowships for young performers. HCL’s most visible business is HCLTech, a B2B technology company that talks mainly to chief executives and chief technology officers. Yet the concert programme is deliberately not run as a lead-generation exercise for that business.

A parent-brand asset, not a campaign

HCL Concerts began in 1998 with performances in Delhi. It emerged from founder Shiv Nadar’s interest in classical arts, but he structured it as a corporate intervention because he believed the field needed stronger support from business.

Nearly 30 years later, the property sits within the HCL Group brand rather than any single entity. As Nikhil Soni, head of brand and marketing at HCL Group, puts it, concerts are

“part of the parent brand or the enterprise brand-building charter.”

Why culture works in a B2B toolkit

HCLTech’s normal marketing conversation is with senior decision-makers. A classical music event may look distant from software services, but HCL’s logic is that culture creates another setting in which to engage the same audience.

This became especially relevant when HCL Concerts went to the US, an important sales geography. Many senior executives in global companies are of Indian origin and stay connected with Indian music and dance. Soni says the programme helps position HCL

“not just as a technology solutions company, but as an Indian company that is deeply connected to its cultural roots.”

The same principle applies at home: events give HCL’s sales and marketing teams another way to interact with Indian executives without making the evening a pitch.

An ecosystem built in four directions

What began as physical performances now runs across four areas: concerts, digital content, talent development and audience development. Live shows still draw audiences of 1,000 to 2,000 people. Digital has become a weekly habit, partly because the pandemic pushed HCL into live streaming.

HCL is also attacking the age problem in classical arts. Raga Collective works with music, dance and art influencers to create short-form Instagram content. The Great Indian Classical Podcast tries to reach audiences who would not otherwise discover the form.

On talent, HCL is moving from supporting performers to feeding the talent supply. It launched Carnatic Quest for young Carnatic musicians and is adding a dance fellowship for ten classical dancers, with a three-month enrichment programme and two further years of association. Hindustani Quest is planned next. Soni says artists and audiences asked for more, and HCL responded.

What B2B marketers can borrow

The practical lessons for brand builders are less about arts sponsorship and more about how associations are built:

• Position a cultural property as parent-brand equity, not a demand-generation channel.
• Choose a passion point that overlaps with your buyer’s identity, even if it sits outside your category.
• Track reach, engagement and relationship signals before immediate pipeline.
• Use local cultural partners instead of building every event yourself.

Expansion now follows culture, not just offices

For years, HCL Concerts followed HCLTech’s operational footprint across Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Nagpur, Madurai, Vijayawada, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad. The strategy is changing: the programme is now moving into cultural centres such as Jaipur and the Northeast, and working with institutions in Varanasi and Prayagraj. HCL expects the physical footprint to potentially double or triple over the next three to four years, using partnerships with trusts and foundations.

The commercial value cannot be reduced to a single metric. There are attendance numbers, digital reach and client interactions. But the bigger return is the association audiences form with the HCL name. In B2B, that is the kind of equity that warms up a conversation long before the sales team arrives.

Source: Afaqs!