Times of India speaks from the heart
September 12, 2008 by grzegorz.piechota
”In our campaigns – rather than talk about the newspaper, we try and be the platform or the presenter of ideas that come from the readers’ own lives, reflect their hopes, aspirations,” says Rahul Kansal, the chief marketing officer at the Times of India.
His groundbreaking editorial and marketing campaign, ”Lead India,” was awarded this year the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival as well as the ”The Best of Show” at the Annual INMA Awards competition.
The Times of India’s campaign called for a new generation to ”Lead India” as the world’s largest democracy celebrates 60 years of independence. More than 34,000 readers went on to participate in a contest that ended with a 10-week talent show for political hopefuls. Public interviews and debates helped The Times of India to drag citizens’ attention to the most important issues of their country.
Rahul Kansal, responsible for the ”Lead India” campaign, will be a special guest of the INMA Outlook 2009: European Conference in Vienna on October 1-3, 2008. He will be interviewed on stage on Thursday, October 2, in an interactive session titled ”Newsmedia That Is Relevant to Society” and hosted by two editors of forum4editors.com working for Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza: Grzegorz Piechota and Jerzy Wojcik.
Before coming to Vienna, Rahul answered to our questions by e-mail.
forum4editors: Most of the daily newspapers around the world promote their product – the paper itself, its contents, the speed and accuracy of their journalists. You have decided to use your marketing power to promote an idea – your vision of India. Why really have you done a campaign like this?
Rahul Kansal: As India’s leading brand of newspapers, the Times of India does not feel it needs to tom-tom its own achievements, or product attributes and benefits. We believe instead in outwardly driven communication. Rather than talk about the newspaper, we try and be the platform or the presenter of ideas that come from the readers’ own lives, reflect their hopes, aspirations.
We follow this approach not just in ”big” programmes like the ”Lead India”, but also when required to make more routine or tactical announcements. To illustrate this by an example: when we recently announced the launch of an all-colour newspaper – we did a campaign dramatizing the use (overuse!) of colour in Indian life as seen on our streets and our cinema and linked it back to the product subtly, rather than a narrow campaign focusing on the product itself. We believe this approach helps position us as an iconic brand echoing the mood of India, rather than a self-serving consumer product.
The ”Lead India” worked because it connected powerfully with a strong emotion lying dormant in the hearts of young Indians: that India can only achieve its ”rightful” place on the world stage if we get oursleves a better and more committed set of political leaders.
Have a look the TV spot of the Times of India featuring India’s leading actor Amitabh Bachhan:
Many Western editors would be afraid of activism like this. They see the role of their newspapers just to report the facts and not to try to influence the reality outhere. Could you respond to their concerns? How would you convince them to your vision of the role of the newspaper?
We believe quite strongly in activism, actually. In India, the upper middle-class reader of a newspaper like the Times of India feels a strong sense of alienation from the political system and the administratve machinery. He feels a leadership vaccuum. The Times of India tries to step in and fill this vaccuum, at least partially.
Before the ”Lead India” we had, for instance, taken up 360-degree programmes in each of the important cities we operate in, aimed at the city’s betterment (citizen’s views, panel discussion etc. leading to a ”citizens” charter).
Who was a driving force behind the ”Lead India” campaign? Were they the editors of the Times of India, or your marketing department? How were you cooperating with each other?
The Times of India is blessed in having been able to achieve a very high degree of trust between marketing and editorial. This programme was basically conceived by marketing, as a progressive build on the highly successful activism initiatives we had jointly undertaken with editorial in the past.
However we took care to ensure that editorial had a complete buy-in and joint sense of ownership (for example: we gave shape to the programme jointly, through an offsite workshop, for instance).
The aim of the ”Lead India” campaign was to be a catalyst of a social change. What have you really changed in your country?
It would be naive to say that we have actually mad any big or lasting impact on the country as a whole. India is too vast a country with far too many deep-seated problems for that.
However, we believe we have made a very good contribution towards making the educated elite in india feel connected with the issues of India and to give them a sense of involvement and ownership.
Have a look at another TV spot promoting the ”Lead India” campaign:
Do you plan to continue your efforts started with the ”Lead India” campaign? If so, how?
We intend to take the ”Lead India” forward this year with a far higher tone of realism and urgency, given the context of the forthcoming general election in April 2009.
The ”Lead india” will also go beyond merely being a talent hunt for new politicians, to becoming a guide on ”how to vote in a better parliament this time.”
About Rahul Kansal
He serves as the Chief Marketing Officer of Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd. He is responsible for the business and brand health as well as the overall editorial and content strategy, for the Group’s newspapers: The Times of India, The Economic Times, Navbharat Times, The Mirror, range of city newspapers and several regional publications.
During his tenure, The Times of India has emerged as the world’s largest circulated English newspaper across genres and formats, ahead of such giants as USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. Apart from having steered the Times of India to success in most markets that it operates in today, he is responsible for having developed and executed several high profile brand initiatives like ”India Poised”, ”Lead India” and ”Teach India”.
Rahul has been an advertising and marketing professional for 29 years. He graduated from SRCC, Delhi University in 1977, and after an MBA from IIM Calcutta in 1979 has worked with some of India’s leading ad agencies such as JWT, O&M, Mudra and Leo Burnett before joining The Times Group. He is a member of several professional bodies in the fields of advertising and media and has taught at various business schools.
Rahul is 51 years old, is married and has two daughters aged 20 and 17. He is fond of music, films and reading.
Tagged: advertising, campaign, Case studies, conference, INMA, Marketing, television
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