In a drive to elevate its reader engagement during the recent festive season, the HT Media Group ran the month-long Festival of Gifts for its print platforms and Festival of Gold for its digital platforms across 11 locations of Hindustan Times and Hindustan. The campaigns comprised daily festive quizzes that garnered more than 6 lakh entries, of which 650 winners were announced.
The campaigns also witnessed participation from the group’s 273 clients from Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Varanasi, Patna, Agra, etc., generating excitement among both its readers and advertisers. Both the campaigns achieved a 1.6% click-through-rate across Hindustan Times and Hindustan websites, while also maintaining consistent participation each day. According to the internal HT Media data, 1 out of 4 responders in Hindustan Times were iPhone users, highlighting the tech preferences and the HNI demographic of its readers. In a testament to the campaign’s diversity and inclusiveness, 3 out of 4 responders in Hindustan were under the age of 45, with 33% women participants. Participation in the Hindi heartland also reached newer milestones with Kanpur recording the most responses across U.P, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.
According to a Kantar survey, the campaigns reported success metrics with a significant increase in brand recall, recording a brand lift of 20 percentage points* for client brands among Hindustan readers, marking a key takeaway for advertisers.
Madhu Pai Bagwadia, Marketing and PR Manager, Tourism Australia (Mumbai), lauded the initiative, stating, “They say, the best gifts are not wrapped in paper but in thoughtfulness, which is exactly what Hindustan Times has done for its readers by putting together this FOG campaign.”
Joy Daniel Pradhan, an avid reader from Delhi and one of the lucky winners from the campaign, shared his excitement, “I am really excited about winning this prize! Having been a reader of Hindustan Times since my journalism school days, this gift holds special significance for me. I’m delighted to share it with my partner, making this moment even more meaningful.”
As the group concludes its festive campaigns, such innovative initiatives underscore the importance of unifying reader and advertiser engagement while capturing the pulse of the nation during the festive season.
*Source – Based on the brand lift study conducted by Kantar in Oct’23 to understand the brand recall among the key target audiences.
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