ABP's high decibel OOH show

ABP News Channel which went in for a revamp recently, felt an essential need to reinstate their identity with a high voltage communication strategy.  "With digitisation consumers have got more choices in terms of channels. According to a Times research, consumers generally have 2-3 channels that they watch regularly and we have to be in those repertoire of channels. Therefore there was a need to build the channel as a brand. Not a lot of news channels are spending time in brand building, so that was the endeavour of this campaign. It was necessary because post last year's change, which was hugely successful for us, we needed to establish the brand name and therefore we decided to come up with a campaign,” says Vikas Singh, Marketing Manager- Marketing, ABP Group.  

Establishing the USP

All channels claim to be fast, accurate and true, but ABP channel positioned itself as a different and unique one and connected with the audience through this campaign. The channel's tag line says'ABP dekhne walo ki sab sunte' (everyone listens to those who watch ABP news channel). "The idea was to build the channel equity, if we say we are the fastest or first, these are very generic points. Our whole channel promise is that we keep the viewers ahead and we empower them to take better decisions.  In India, we all are very good speakers and nobody wants to listen. We all want to give our opinions but people are not ready to listen to us because it doesn't have depth. Therefore, we came up with whole idea of the line'ABP dekhne walo ki sab sunte hai'. Hence, we are trying to differentiate ourselves from other channels,” says Vikas.

Empowering the creative   

The whole campaign was designed considering the theme line and the on-going TVC. The creative showcased the conversation amongst a group of people which was highlighted with 3D podiums and real microphones on hoardings and DND area. "The campaign is about making people aware that everyone listens to those who watch ABP news channel. Therefore to depict speaking and the knowledge sharing idea, we created the whole campaign. Also, to build connect with the theme line we installed different elements like Podium and Microphones on OOH formats,” says Prashant Mishra, Regional Head (North)- OOH, Milestone Brandcom.

Choice of Touch Points

The cities were primarily selected on the basis of Hindi news channels listeners. The campaign was highly visible in Delhi, UP and Patna. Also the media selection was done intelligently. "OOH is a very cost effective and unique medium; therefore it has lot of clutter. The idea was to select those places which are less cluttered. We didn't go for hoardings in Mumbai because they are very expensive and also the brand would get lost there unless we have adequate money to pump in there,” says Vikas.

Here's a look at the strategic choice of touchpoints and formats:

•         DND Area- The DND area was acquired to tap the audience who travel from Delhi to Noida and vice-versa. The bull nose was synced with microphone to give an additional factor.  
 
•         Railway Announcements- The announcements were organised before every update at several city stations in UP.  The announcements were interestingly connected with the theme line so that nobody could miss it and it was ensured that it did not get mixed up with the with railway announcements.
 
•         Hoardings- Conventional media was also utilised interestingly with the help of different elements like real Microphones and 3D Podium.
 
Strategic Activation 

The whole OOH campaign was accompanied with activation executed across Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra. BQS formats were utilised to organise the activity. A mammoth hand holding a mic was placed next to BQS along with the podium where audience could speak and share their views. In order to make the activation more prominent, the activation was linked to one of their popular debate shows called Maha-Behas where the views were broadcast in between the show. Along with that, Radio City also included the view points in their radio show.  "The activation was organised to make the local audience participate and to listen to their points of view. The idea was to make them empowered and give them a feel of being listened to by the rest of the audience. The activation was taken to another level and connected with live ABP TV show-'Mahabahas' and the same topic was used to get discussed during the activation,” explains Prashant.

The brand-medium equation

Sharing his views on ABP's equation with the OOH medium, Vikas shares, "Outdoor is a very good reminder medium. We had a full bust TV campaign on our channels and GECs and we were looking at a reach of 90%. So we were saturating the market but we needed this message to constantly reach the consumer as a reminder. Therefore we came up with three renditions. TV is one rendition but you have different strata of the societies and different TGs like youngsters, office-goers, SEC A. We needed to target all of them and show that ABP appeals to all of them, which we were unable to do through TV alone. Two things can be said about the OOH medium- first, it acts as a reminder medium and secondly, it gives a wider width of reach to a greater variety of people. At some places like UP, where there is a huge electricity problem TV campaigns may not work. So radio and OOH are the only alternatives.”

Challenges

"The challenge was more of managing the crowd during the activation as everybody wants to say something and has their view points. We had to filter the best bytes in a short duration. Managing the whole activation and meeting the deadlines were also big tasks. Besides we had to make sure traffic didn't get hampered. Added to it was the heat of the scorching summer. Last but not the least was to ensure the safety of the show anchor, given the huge crowds,” sums up Prashant talking about the challenges involved in managing this campaign.

Response

According to the first cut received by the agency and the brand, the campaign seems to have been well received. Word of mouth obviously worked very well in this case. Media planners and agencies have been talking about it and it has created a lot of buzz in the market. The activation also got covered in a lot of publications. The brand believes that this will help in increasing their brand equity at the end of a few months' time when they will track it.