Takes Diwali festivities to the digital level, and organises a memorable celebration for employees.
During the Covid pandemic, 1702 Digital, one of India’s fastest-growing digital agencies set out to support these local businesses by urging everyone:  clients, team members, vendors, associates, and clients to buy from them and make this year’s Diwali celebrations one to remember. 
Their HR team stepped up admirably with their celebrations, from arranging for local sweets and snacks close to every associate's house to a virtual Tambola dedicated to independent businesses, to taking measures to be environmentally conscious. 
1702 Digital believes in being the change they want to see. As a result, the HR team put their best foot forward suggesting ideas to encourage the employees to buy from local businesses this Diwali. 
Couple of days before Diwali, team members were caught unaware when the delivery person knocked on their door with their favorite sweets in hand. The main aim of gifting sweets was to show the employees that quality Indian products are available right in their backyard and all they have to do is reach out to them.
Associates posted about this on their social media acknowledging 1702 Digital's decision to go #VocalForLocal. 
They organized a virtual Diwali tambola event where the winners received Flipkart vouchers for them to shop online from local brands during Diwali. This was a dicey idea because of the uncertainty of shopping from local brands but the vouchers were accompanied with a plea to the winners to shop only from homegrown brands available on the platform. 
The winners and other key members were further pampered with WFH grooming products and headphones of Indian-origin.
The team HR of 1702 Digital has always been uplifting the spirits of the 1702 Digital team with regular fun events, treats, or surprises. This #vocalforlocal campaign was another opportunity for them to do the same and they grabbed it with both hands. They set up the foundation for all the other activities lined up in the initiative and thus lead from the front. 
Sharing the experiences about their efforts, Mihir Joshi, one of the founders of 1702 said, “It was fun and satisfying to figure out every team member's favorite sweets and buy it from the local Halwais. Nothing satisfies our HRs more than to hear the happiness in each team member's voice after they received the sweets. It was good to know that we encouraged employees to be #vocalforlocal and hope that this message stays with them forever”.
Rashi Panchal, Sr HR Generalist at 1702 further added, “Our employees are scattered around in all parts of the country. As a result, during the process of gifting them sweets, we set out on a journey across India and we were enlightened to see so many quality Indian local restaurants in parts of different cities. I can only imagine the huge number of small scale businesses in every sector working relentlessly that have the caliber to deliver big in the long term if they get our support.” 
Further, a CSR initiative of vouchers worth 5L was set aside to implement a socially distant gifting mechanism - providing e-vouchers to employees, partners & clients, for them to purchase items sold by Indian owned & operated businesses. While delivering the message of showing solidarity with those affected most by the pandemic, it also aimed at creating a smaller carbon footprint than usual. 
All this brought together the entire bunch of 1702ers to celebrate the festival in a responsible & visionary way.