Kochi: It is this time of the year when Onam kick starts the Indian festive, a time of celebration when advertisers release campaigns to get their share of the consumer’s wallet. This has resulted in Onam becoming a broad indicator of consumer sentiment; the monies spent by brands and their impact on the overall Adex and the larger economy.
However, 2021 has been unprecedented in more ways than one with celebrations either canceled or muted on account of the pandemic situation that’s brought the whole world to a standstill. The resultant lockdown and the impact of the pandemic saw advertising and consumer spends being curtailed.
To boost and refresh the festival sentiment, the Mathrubhumi Group has launched a campaign” The Biggest Jackpot your Brand can get in this Year’s Onam” targeting key stakeholders – The advertisers, and media agencies. The campaign places Onam, which will be celebrated from 20th -23rd August, as the first consumer spending and advertising opportunities for India this year.
Though ‘ Claim the jackpot for your brand’ is a Mathrubhumi Group initiative, each vertical – the flagship Mathrubhuimi paper, the TV channel Mathrubhumi News, radio network Club FM, and the digital arm Mathrubhumi.com has adopted a distinctive approach to convey their story and there reach. So while the various creative (emailers and digital extensions) done might look different, the underlying theme and communication are the same.
Speaking about the genesis of the campaign, Sudeep Kumar, Cluster Head, Mathrubhumi Group (Print), said “After the second wave, now business especially retail have started to open and brands are investing in advertising again. There was no drop in our circulation figures during the lockdown and in fact, time spent reading newspapers increased as a credible medium to know about COVID this will give us an added advantage to maintain our ad volumes and rates. We are expecting good growth in volume and revenue during FY 22. This year’s Onam season, the majority of retail spend is expected to happen in print because of the excellent reach of print offers in Kerala, and the convenience that print offers to execute campaigns in very short notice. This year Onam is a little early and hence effective days for sales will be less. so the print will be preferred medium due to its wide reach and immediate response features”.
Commenting on the campaign, Naveen Sreenivasan, Head Media Solutions (TRD), Mathrubhumi Group said ”The festive season in the country begins with ONAM and this year too, we are expecting a vibrant festive month. We have planned out various audience engagement initiatives across our verticals to help brands connect with kerala and capitalize on the festival business opportunity”.
Explaining the creative brief, Francis Thomas, Creative Director, Maitri Advertising Works said ”This Onam is likely to be a bumper season, with a high likelihood of Malayalees ‘revenge spends spending’ after spending months stuck indoors while the stores closed. We anticipated that brands are going to go all out to capture the market and we decided to anticipate some of the wilder ideas that their advertising agencies might suggest. With Mathrubhumi’s wide reach and high trust factor, we promise planners a great season without having to resort to gimmicks to promote their brands”.
