For those of you who dont already know this, The Hindu has been the leading daily newspaper in Chennai for ages! Newspaper habits are amongst the most difficult to break and the ones who read The Hindu in chennai are probably the most difficult to reach in breaking this habit. The Hindu in Chennai is like cricket in India, it is a religion.
Times of India, India's most aggresive daily has been expanding rapidly. They took bangalore by storm when they launched here years ago. Deccan Herald, the leading daily in Bangalore then, didnt know what hit them.
In continuation of their expansion across the country, TOI launched their Chennai edition soemtime back. The only way they could do this successfully is to take Hindu head on. If there's anyone who can actually pull this off, it is TOI. They launched this ad recently to further that objective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxz4WvGG7uA
Quite appropriate and a nicely made ad, it shows the whole bunch of situations (read - local news items) that actually get covered in The Hindu (ideally, any daily newspaper -but not times. :) i'm also telling you this out of experience, Times doesnt cover all that unless you're willing to pay for it); these situations are actually shown in a rather dull and boring way, with a typical chennai reader, dressed in his white dhoti and white shirt with the newspaper in his hands, sleeping! They show a school cricket team winning its trophy with this reader in the shot, sleeping of course, a lifeless political rally with hordes of people looking one way and this same reader present there but looking the other way, sleeping, you get the drift right? The printing press with the background music of the typical south indian beat is a nice touch to add flavour to the caption of "Wake up to the Times of India". Overall, job well done.
Act II, Sceme I:
The response from The Hindu has been nothing short of phenomenal! They've launched a full frontal attack on the times of india, starting this set of ads, the first of which i saw on TV a few days ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=4Eb-waHx-00&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmXPBp7DpQw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckzsh9SpUAQ
These ads are nothing short of brilliant, they hit times of india where it hurts most. All the points taken up in the ad are true, which means toi cannot even sue hindu for defamation (of course, i'm over exaggerating to drive home a point here). The ads show the typical "young" / "cool" / "smart" times of india reader (read - wannabe). The survey with fairly obvious questions like who is the vice president of the country? Who is ram's father in ramayan, etc couldnt have been chosen better to bring out the ignorance that all of us substitute today against substance. The questions on sensationalism and gossip + the ease with which the answers popped out hit the nail bang on the head. The final leading question of which newspaper do you read couldnt have been made any better by anyone in the world. 10/10 for the concept, messaging and execution! Brilliant ad and a fabulous response to counter times drive!
Act II, Scene II:
I was surprised enough that a fairly laid back The Hindu actually came out with a response campaign and a damn good one at that. What was even more shocking was it didnt stop there. I have heard versions of the ad on radio, i'm seeing versions of the ad in print and of course social media is abuzz with this topic right now! Here's some print ad samples:
The surprises dont stop here. Earlier in this post i called this a full frontal attack and i couldnt have meant it more. This fight that orignally started out for a share of readership in chennai, now is being taken to almost all cities where Hindu and TOI have presence! Not something you'd expect off Hindu, typically. Kudos guys! Dont know about what you think but for me this is a successful campaign. Mission accomplished!
Going by what i know of the times of india, i am so sure there's more to come and quite honestly, i'm actually looking forward to where this goes.
Times of India, India's most aggresive daily has been expanding rapidly. They took bangalore by storm when they launched here years ago. Deccan Herald, the leading daily in Bangalore then, didnt know what hit them.
In continuation of their expansion across the country, TOI launched their Chennai edition soemtime back. The only way they could do this successfully is to take Hindu head on. If there's anyone who can actually pull this off, it is TOI. They launched this ad recently to further that objective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxz4WvGG7uA
Quite appropriate and a nicely made ad, it shows the whole bunch of situations (read - local news items) that actually get covered in The Hindu (ideally, any daily newspaper -but not times. :) i'm also telling you this out of experience, Times doesnt cover all that unless you're willing to pay for it); these situations are actually shown in a rather dull and boring way, with a typical chennai reader, dressed in his white dhoti and white shirt with the newspaper in his hands, sleeping! They show a school cricket team winning its trophy with this reader in the shot, sleeping of course, a lifeless political rally with hordes of people looking one way and this same reader present there but looking the other way, sleeping, you get the drift right? The printing press with the background music of the typical south indian beat is a nice touch to add flavour to the caption of "Wake up to the Times of India". Overall, job well done.
Act II, Sceme I:
The response from The Hindu has been nothing short of phenomenal! They've launched a full frontal attack on the times of india, starting this set of ads, the first of which i saw on TV a few days ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=4Eb-waHx-00&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmXPBp7DpQw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckzsh9SpUAQ
These ads are nothing short of brilliant, they hit times of india where it hurts most. All the points taken up in the ad are true, which means toi cannot even sue hindu for defamation (of course, i'm over exaggerating to drive home a point here). The ads show the typical "young" / "cool" / "smart" times of india reader (read - wannabe). The survey with fairly obvious questions like who is the vice president of the country? Who is ram's father in ramayan, etc couldnt have been chosen better to bring out the ignorance that all of us substitute today against substance. The questions on sensationalism and gossip + the ease with which the answers popped out hit the nail bang on the head. The final leading question of which newspaper do you read couldnt have been made any better by anyone in the world. 10/10 for the concept, messaging and execution! Brilliant ad and a fabulous response to counter times drive!
Act II, Scene II:
I was surprised enough that a fairly laid back The Hindu actually came out with a response campaign and a damn good one at that. What was even more shocking was it didnt stop there. I have heard versions of the ad on radio, i'm seeing versions of the ad in print and of course social media is abuzz with this topic right now! Here's some print ad samples:
Going by what i know of the times of india, i am so sure there's more to come and quite honestly, i'm actually looking forward to where this goes.
