News18 India’s No.1 campaign connects at scale with audiences

With the election season energizing the entire media landscape since February’22, News18 India launched the most extensive marketing campaign by a news channel. The campaign objective was to deliver News18 India’s ‘No. 1’ core messaging to the target audience utilizing multiple mediums.
The channel arrayed a range of media across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand that included traditional mediums such as TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, Transit, and Cable channels at high frequency. Various high visibility and impactful units were also deployed in outdoor mediums.
However, it was the use of digital/social/mobile platforms to maximize the targeted reach and also drive the brand’s perception amongst key audiences which was the mainstay of the campaign. Highly engaging communication reiterating the messaging of No. 1 was deployed across multiple platforms such as FB, YT Twitter, and on Whatsapp to drive home the message of the channel being the best destination for elections coverage. Influencers were also used to seed the channel’s video promotions as well as to drive the channel brand through interesting content formats such as Twitter Polls. These campaigns delivered an overall reach of over 90 million+ across different platforms. The channel also ran a targeted campaign on LinkedIn to reach out to top corporate executives as well as marketing leaders. This leg was further bolstered with the use of highly targeted programmatic advertising which also allowed the brand to ambush competing media platforms
The channel also interacted directly with the consumers through a viewer engagement program on the Counting Day – named ‘Kya Aap Hain News18 India ke Darshak No.1?’ to tie in with the rest of the campaign. This activity was extensively promoted across Whatsapp, social media and a recorded voice call. The campaign truly had multiple high points on account of several innovative creative and media interventions.
The campaign unveiled a unique film-‘Voters ki Number 1 Zimmedari’ – which consisted of a prank being used to remind people to go out and vote. The film was promoted extensively on Whatsapp in Varanasi, Allahabad, and Gorakhpur wherein a large proportion of the eligible population was reached through this campaign. The channel also did a high-impact content integration on the radio with Red FM called ‘Sawaalon ka Number 1 Dangal’ where RJ interacted with top News18 India anchors. The idea here again was to through both the promotional communication as also the interaction hammer in the point about News18 India having the No.1 news team and the No.1 news coverage.
News18 India also deployed high visibility transit & OOH media and public avenues creatively. LED hoardings were installed on boats near various ghats in Varanasi. Prime areas such as the Gomti Bridge in Lucknow were completely branded by the channel to drive the channel’s visibility and salience.
Similarly, the Lucknow-Varanasi intercity train was wrapped with the channel’s branding to deliver the No.1 messaging.News18 India branded autos and cabs traversed through many cities of UP, Uttarakhand and Punjab, carrying the campaign communication.
News18 India also had a special song crafted for the Counting Day coverage ‘News18 India par nahi toh natija nahi’. Customized autos playing this song echoing were deployed across major cities of Uttar Pradesh. As the 5-state elections conclude, News18 India has clearly emerged as a dominant brand on the back of a holistic and innovative campaign executed through multiple mediums, strategic media partnerships and effective targeting.