Objectives

Background:

• Dainik Bhaskar is India's largest circulated newspaper (ABC JJ'18).
• Amongst the states we are present; the state of Bihar was the weakest link.
• Bihar was controlled by 3 established newspapers. They enjoyed hefty ad volume market shares and loyalty among readers.
• It was an important Hindi market to win from subscription, advertising growth and market dominance perspective.
• Dainik Bhaskar entered the state in 2014 with one edition and ramped upto 4 editions. But it was clearly not enough.
• Dainik Bhaskar continued to show poorly against the dominator trio in Bihar in Indian Readership Surveys. The data is used for all media plans.
• In early 2018, Bihar Turnaround plan was set in motion.
• Dainik Bhaskar using its unique Twin Contact Program (2 Mn homes were surveyed), co-created a newspaper which the readers would value more.
• Printing centers were set up, subscription force was mobilized marketing was energized and from 4 we moved up to 38 editions providing 100% coverage of the state.
• The newspaper witnessed exponential growth in readership in short period of 6 months. 35% of households surveyed now subscribed to the newspaper. Dainik Bhaskar had become Bihar's No 2 newspaper.
• The Dainik Bhaskar growth story in Bihar continued to be a open secret, with TG having very little idea of the reality.

Objectives

• Make the target audience aware of the ground reality.
• Position Dainik Bhaskar as the game-changer in Bihar.
• Enable sales teams to ramp up rates, demand higher market share and bring non - advertisers on board.

Strategy and Execution

The strategic business challenges:

• But we faced a critical challenge of turning the results from the ground efforts into concrete verifiable data for the media fraternity and advertisers across the country.
• In India, the media agencies operate from metro cities of India where the majority of advertisers are based. These media planners primarily rely on ABC and IRS to make decisions about any media plans for the print advertising campaigns of the advertisers.
• Planners and buyers were skeptical and in no hurry to change their mind.
• As this exponential growth of Dainik Bhaskar was achieved in mere 6 months, latest ABC numbers did not reveal our updated circulation numbers.
• The next Readership Survey was atleast a year away.

We needed to convey that the stakes in Bihar's newspaper category had clearly changed and that Dainik Bhaskar was now a lead player.

We decided to commission an independent research to study and understand the relative standing of Hindi newspapers in Bihar. Among the multiple pitches, Hansa Research won the pitch and presented the The Bihar Readership Report 2018.

The survey ratified our inference that we had in fact, become the second largest newspaper in Bihar in just 6 months.

Now the task at hand was to convey this to our TG sitting in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

Consumer or business insight that led to the campaign:

It's about the journey, not the destination.

Leader brands talk about the way they gained their success and not just the results. We decided to celebrate our position – the new No 2 in a way that has never been marketed in the Indian Media industry before.

Big idea and how it came to life:

Who would you back - The fastest horse in the race, or the oldest?

We unleashed a multi - channel campaign in 2 phases spanning 7 months.

Phase 1 ( Prepare the ground for the readership report results)

• -Communication of ground efforts and result through ads and emailers
• -Video Walls at Delhi and Mumbai airports at high footfall, strategic locations
• -Management letter to all key clients
• -Direct mailers to key clients and agency personnel
• -Bihar Study Tours for clients, planners and buyers.

Phase 2 (communicate the results of the Survey and celebrate the No 2 position)

• -Communication of the results of the Hansa Bihar Survey through ads and e-mailers
• -Video Walls at Delhi and Mumbai airports at high footfall, strategic locations
• -Press Conference by Hansa Research for key sector and business journalists
• -The Every 2^nd Matters digital Contest on historic runners up (microsite, alerts, promotional e-mailers, contest extension, winners announcement)
• -Celebration Trade Parties

Results

• There was 100% awareness and recall of Dainik Bhaskar in Bihar as the No 2 newspaper brand in our target group. This was gauged through a questionnaire - based phone survey done among planners, buyers and advertisers.
• They used words like hi-decibel, engaging, great ads, catchy lines to describe the campaign.
• The Every 2^nd Matters Contest was a hit - close to 1500 people took part in the contest;
• successful engagements deliver 700-1000 numbers in our target group. We had to extend the contest deadline.
• The campaign provided the air cover and opportunity to engage with the target group on multiple occasions.
• Average 50% rate hike achieved for regular users of Dainik Bhaskar, Bihar and 100% in cases where Bihar was a high priority market.
• Bundling of Bihar with DB (All editions) was discontinued and it started pulling standalone rates.
• 85% volume growth was achieved cumulatively over Quarter 2 and 3 of the financial year.
• Over 150 new advertisers added.

Media