The Campaign

Jang Classified, a 24 page special section, is published every Sunday with the Jang newspaper from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Multan, Quetta, Faisalabad and Peshawar. These cities represent 70% of the urban consumer purchasing power in Pakistan. We Introduced QR codes in select classified categories to make the buying and selling experience more dynamic and vibrant. This enabled us to deliver value to the consumer by adding video/audio as well as photo features to the existing product. The advent of Online Classifieds had an adverse impact on the print classifieds. Classified revenue declined in 2014-15 by 17% with a volume decline of almost 20%.The convenience of posting a free ad via a mobile app was being perceived as an advantage.The biggest challenge was Free vs Paid and Color visuals vs plain B/W Text. Customers were shifting to posting free ads online on different classified portals. Particularly, in Automobile and Property categories.

Creative Execution

QR Code Mechanism: 1. Pay a nominal fee for placing an advertisement with a QR Code. 2. The consumer will then receive a text message with the reference number of the advertisement, helpline number, and the password and the online link to the website where consumers can submit pictures and qqvideos. 3. Consumers can click on the web link and upload pictures and videos related to their advertisement. 4. Readers can use any QR application on a smart phone to scan the given QR Code to view the pictures/video posted by the seller. QR Codes Placed in Jang Classified: Property/Real Estate : 67% Automobiles: 23% Other :18% Total Sessions:82,345 Property/Real Estate:51,053 60% Automobile: 23,056 30% Others: 8,236 10% Avg. Session Duration: 3 Min 43 Sec. Users:55,067 Page Views:230,760 Unique Page Views:189,065 Average time/Page:1.9 minutes Average Session/Ad:17 Page Views/Ad:46

We wanted to create convenience for the end consumer and counter the ease of posting free ads on portals through mobile apps and delivered a simple and convenient solution so that the consumer can be wherever and whenever. We developed a parallel value chain along with our existing conventional classified model. Our marketing campaigns were carried out through televison, print, outdoor, posters, training manuals,tutorial videos. Also, through earned media like Google Search where our reach went to 59.700 result on Google. On Facebook promotions Jang Classified tvc had 3.4 million views, reaching out to over 3414072 people. On Vimeo there has been more than 33 thousand and above plays on the tvc. Online endorsements were also done by Wanifra, AIMGroup, Brandsynario and Pro Pakistan. From Febuary 2017 to January 2018 the QR ads reach from 173 to 730, showing a maximum reach.

In order to make buying and selling experience more dynamic and vibrant, QR codes were introduced in selected key categories.It not only just emphasizes on the print factor but also has audio/video and picture features involved in it as previously online portals only had still images, with no audio/visual element.

Consumer Insights: After series of focus groups we identified, people generally like anything, which is given free to them, however, what's the point of getting something free that cannot deliver guaranteed results. We therefore focused on the elements of trust and credibility, to connect with the existing and potential consumers. 4 Pronged Strategy: Revamped the product and gave a new and fresh look .Introduced QR Codes in key categories. Thus bringing in the element of audio/video into static ads. Launched an aggressive marketing campaign highlighting QR codes and challenging the effectiveness of the so called free ads posted on online portals.Developed a parallel value chain to offer ease of payment to customers. We Introduced QR codes in select classified categories to make the buying and selling experience more dynamic enabling us to deliver value to the consumer by adding video/audio, photo features to the existing product.