By: Yohan P Chawla
Blame it on RIO? Or TRAI’s new Tariff Order, about which most media buying agencies have already said they will wait and watch and hold their big monies till the great consumer channel-pack migrations settle. That seemed to be the reason behind News18, the news network of Network18, today coming out with full-page, front page ads in three major English mainlines — two general and one business — The Times of India, The Economic Times and The Hindustan Times. So it was a veritable Print Roadblock. The ad titled ’18 = 1′ claims that News18 as a network of 15 news channels which include its English, Hindi- and other regional-language news channels, has a consolidated market share of 11.8%. The next big player, according to the advertisement, is the Zee Network with a 10.1% market share.
So was it to get early commitment from the waiting and watching advertisers that the ads were released? I caught up with Rahul Kansal, Group Brand Advisor, Network18, on the 18=1 campaign.
On why going with just 3 English dailies and not using regional newspapers or a full-fledged OOH campaign, Kansal said, “I think 18 = 1 is more of a way of spending on advertising which is impactful. I have always been a believer of the phrase, ‘hundred blows of a goldsmith is comparable to one blow of an iron-smith.
“We at News18 prefer to spend money in one meaningful way in order to communicate our message across, effectively — which yields better results. We have been leaders for a year now and we did a small version of the same campaign 18=1 last year in July. We have consolidated our position as a leader a lot more and hence, we wanted to go bigger to the trade audience in a broader sense, and not just through trade publications as major advertisers are spread across the big cities.”
On targeting advertisers, Kansal said, “It includes every NEWS18 brand that contributes to the 11.8% market share. This wasn’t done in order to build viewership, because no viewer will watch an entire network, but will watch one channel at a time. This is more for advertisers and that’s why we have advertised in all the editions of The Economic Times, so that advertisers from across the country would see the ad.”
On the timing of the campaign Kansal said, “The numbers were progressively strong for us. When we saw the 2% difference which translates to about 18% to 20% gap to the next, the Number 2, from us, we were just excited about the fact and wanted the world to know about this. We will be releasing the campaign in the form of on-air promos and run them across the network.”
Will other broadcasters emulate something like this, or will they continue to proceed with their own networks to get viewer mindspace? At a tough and trying time, own-network communications and promotions will be the most painless — after all, 85 to 90% of existing audiences of a channel or broadcaster get their new messages on-air from the same channel or network.
