ABP launches year-long centenary celebrations at Goafest

ABP is celebrating its hundredth year of existence with a new campaign, named ABP 2022 centenary. The campaign was launched at Goafest 2022. It was in March 13, 1922 that Anandbazar Patrika, the flagship brand of ABP, was born, at the heights of the India’s independence movement. It was a four-page evening daily for a price of two paisa. Since then, it has grown into a formidable media entity, playing the important role of opinion maker not only in Bengal but also all over the country. After independence, the group grew further, launching English news daily The Telegraph, business newspaper Business Standard, and Sportsworld.

‘ABP 2022 centenary’ seeks to encapsulates the media brand seeks to convey about its hundred years of journey. Unsurprisingly, the ABP Group’s brand articulation for its centenary year boils down to a simple three-word sentence. Curiosity questions answers. It is a provocative thought that drives home hat has always been a facet of the brand’s philosophy.

“We completed 100 years today; we created a campaign which we launched in Goa Fest, now it will be rolled out in a B2B, B2C space. The campaign is centered around a thought which basically embodies the very essence of our journey over the last few years, and that’s around the world of curiosity. We feel that’s a very primal human need to know more and that’s the tenant of any good journalism, whether in television or in print. A good journalist is curious to know and so we felt that is backdrop on which our journalism has been built on and that is what we have extended on various spots. Curiosity just does not stop at seeking answers for things you don’t know; it’s also the extent of questioning answers and a good curious person should also question the answers which are coming and hence it is built around the thought and campaign tagline Curiousity Questions and the question mark is the motive on which we are building the campaign,” said ABP COO Avinash Pandey.

There’s a human face embedded in the question mark and that face will change depending on the situation, depending on what we are asking for, this was the purpose of campaign, he added.

Regarding a different approach of ABP, ABP CEO Dhruba Mukherjee said: “This is what we do every day; if you look at our newspapers or television channels, the kind of coverage we do. For example, we were the only channel for a good four five hours broadcasting the tragedy of people stuck in small pond near Dhanbad, Devgarh and all channels were busy covering the Ukraine-Russia War. There were around 40 people stuck. The Natural Disaster Authority could not save them; Army had to be called and it was a typical ropeway tragedy. If it had happened in California or anywhere it would have been a global news. But as it happened in Devgad, we were the only channel covering and later everybody picked up. So as far as a coverage is concerned, ABP is pioneer in the ground news. Even today, our coverage around the riots in different parts of India because of Ram Navmi processions is far superior than the competition,” he added.

The kind of journalism is happening in country today is that if a question is asked, said Mukherjee, the answer is given and it ends there, whether the answer solves the question or not. Similarly in the field of reporting and journalism, it is this curiosity which leads to the possible right answer. “This campaign is not about what you want to do now; it’s more about a reflection of what we have got over last 100 years. It is an underlying thread of a journey over the last 100 years and hopefully for next 100 years. We want to keep this thought alive in our journalism that we have to have a curious mind and keep on questioning. We have launched our campaign to celebrate our endeavours by a century logo and a film and we will do a lot of activities throughout the year. This is also the need of hour. It is not a logo change this is just for the campaign,” said Mukherjee.

Regarding the kind of activities and programmes they plan to do for next one year, Dhruba Mukherjee said that the idea is to extend the celebration in the B2B and B2C space. “We will be taking this campaign into the masses as well as our client and advertisers we will continue to connect with them. The whole campaign is designed by Agnello Dias on a freelance capacity as he is no longer with the ‘Taproot’. After he quit he was pretty much free, so we approached him because he has a wealth of experience and knowledge in this sector. So he collaborated at an individual level and he has built it up along with his chosen team,” he said.

He added that neither the logo of ABP telegraph or ABP Network is changing. It is just a celebratory of centenary and it is a logo for that purpose.

The campaign will go on for a year. “We started now. The centenary happened in March 2022. Anandrika Patrika was the first brand from ABP as a Bengali newspaper which started on Holi in March 1922. The whole paper was in red not because of holi but it was the colour of the protest against the British government which was ruling us. It came as a protest paper and we completed our 100 years this March 2022. So technically our centenary starts from March but we just decided to roll it out from this forum and then take it to next March. It is very dynamic and basic people-centred journalism,” he said.