With Times of India launching in Kerala the publication has reportedly crossed its "final frontier". JWT India has worked on the launch campaign that includes print, radio, outdoor, digital and on-ground activities. A music video featuring a folk rock song composed by Avial is also expected to go on-air soon.
View the print campaign:
Commenting on the brief given to the agency for the campaign, Priya Gupta, vice-president, Times of India (Brand), said, "People of Kerala have tremendous pride in their culture and are very strongly rooted with their families and their State, as a result of which they always long to go back to their roots. While the Times Of India is a global brand in terms of readership and attitude, we are hyperlocal in our sensitivities and culltural connect. We are the first newspaper to have launched 10 cities in one day in the state of Kerala. The brief was thus to connect emotionally by drawing from a malyali's life across different parts of kerala since we were launching an all Kerala edition."
Sharing the thought behind the campaign, Senthil Kumar, national creative director, JWT India, added, "After several months of mining local insights and deep diving into its visual metaphors, long debates with the TOI brand, marketing and editorial teams, studying the land and the musical language that motivated 100% literacy, we were driven by the ambition to amplify authentic Kerala Morning deliveries from every point of view, for TOI’s final frontier."
The publication's Kerala edition is printed in 10 different locations across Kerala : Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Allapuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kannur. "We needed different kinds of delivery boys for the unique challenge of reaching out to every home in Kerala. And they have to be extremely local delivery boys who know the land. We found four kinds to start the journey, not just in the Press, Postcard and Outdoor campaigns but also bring the images alive by activating the home delivery of over a hundred thousand newspapers on Day one," added Kumar.
The Idea was executed across Kerala by over a hundred elephants, backwater boatmen, Kalari Warriors and the traditional fish monger aka Meenkaran. On the first day of the publication's launch, 1 February, at 6 am, 300 newspapers were handed over per elephant / boatman in bundles of 50 each, which were hung on back of the elephant and then the elephant guided by its mahout moved to the nearest residential areas to deliver the TOI newspapers, house to house.
The images from the campaign were also rendered in classic black and white form to create imagery that was uniquely Keralam. These postcards are shared on Facebook, where users can tag, share and send it to their friends. The Times Kerala Home Delivery postcards are also placed at Post Offices, Newspaper stores and newsagents shops in Kerala.
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View images from the on-ground activity:
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