Results and Effectiveness

The impact: it seemed like the entire city was reading Deccan Herald. The boring red Volvo buses had suddenly become these exciting brand ambassadors. Across the bus route, pedestrians would stand and stare at the bus full of Deccan Herald readers. Some would just enter and peek into the bus to check if this was real or just their eyes playing mischief. This soon became a source of buzz for the city's commuters. And what was more heartening was the fact that the brand was back in the consideration set among the new and young users.

Creative Execution

Over a period of 4 weeks, we targeted the city’s commuters. The city had an existing network of red Volvo commuter buses which we felt were the ideal choice. And as people tended to spend at least an hour inside the bus, this was a perfect choice of media. We wrapped the entire bus (every window) to look as if the commuters inside were reading Deccan Herald. And as passengers boarded the bus, he/she was given a free copy of the newspaper. And there began a new journey of the brand with the customer.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

What do you do when you are the trailing English language newspaper in the city? While circulation numbers were not taking a beating, the image surely was. After all, Deccan Herald was the city’s own newspaper and had more loyal readers. We just needed to communicate and excite new and younger readers. What the brand needed was an innovative way to demonstrate Deccan Herald’s brand difference in a cost-efficient and targeted manner. Also, being a city based newspaper brand, the choice of media was restricted to outdoor.Besides, there was an existing habit of reading a newspaper when commuting. We wanted to cash in on this insight.