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#NoConditionsApply: Sindoor Khela – The Times of India

 

The Times of India is the largest circulated daily newspaper in India. In the state of Bengal, The Telegraph ruled the roost. To win this newspaper war, The Times of India needed to connect with Bengalis as a people, not just readers & embed its message of ‘No Conditions apply’ within their culture. 

 

One of India’s oldest festivals Durga Puja was steeped in a 400-year old tradition of discrimination.

Every year, 35mn Bengali women come together in celebration to play “Sindoor Khela” (the vermillion game) an ancient ritual which reaffirms their womanhood. 

 

But this national celebration of Goddess Durga comes with one big condition:  

 

No single women, divorcees, widows, LGBTQ. It is reserved only for the married. While all the other “forbidden” women look on, feeling rejected. 

 

We created a uniquely Indian symbol, which every woman could adopt, and become part of a national sisterhood. We partnered with leaders of minority communities like widows, trans-genders, and LGBTQ, to release a digital film demanding acceptance. 

 

We joined hands with the biggest temple society in Calcutta and invited the “forbidden” women to attend Sindoor Khela. To spread our message across all genders and generations, we engaged celebrities who were loud advocates of feminism. This led to unprecedented buzz and a spontaneous upsurge of demands for equality - both online and offline. 

 

Content partnership between Samsung and NDTV 

We diligently studied our audience and drilled out actionable insights. Focused groups, research tools and audience archetypes revealed – ‘new technology lured early adopters’. Our proprietary research tool ‘Moments’ tapped into social listening to identify apropos touch-points. News and digital emerged as leading platforms that helped them stay connected, informed and be Tech exhibitionists.  

 

News, as a medium, is treated seriously and consumed widely but provides little scope for innovation. Disrupting industry norms, we came up with a path breaking idea and partnered with NDTV- India’s first independent News Channels’ Network. Hence, was conceived an alliance between two brands, Samsung and NDTV, known to be innovative, trustworthy and leaders in their respective categories; NDTV content now being filmed on ‘Samsung Smartphones’.