Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

The ‘SOH’ campaign was released during heights of COVID despair. We wanted to inject hope, dispel misinformation & encourage vaccination amongst people. We would succeed only by reaching people across multiple channels. The core idea, that positive news and facts would triumph over hearsay and myths was anchored in print. Amplifying this were carefully coordinated layers of integrated activity-WhatsApp for fact checked news, microsite and webinars to catalyse engagement and bar code scanner in print to answer queries raised by readers through experts. Influencers drove the spread of the message, while panel discussions on TV gave us mass visibility.

Background

Covid led to job losses, business shutdowns and economic downturn. Add to that negativity & widespread panic as people started fuelling misinformation via social media/messenger apps. There were efforts to counter this atmosphere of doom and gloom, but none could achieve the impact needed for changing the mood of the nation. As the newspaper of the nation, The Times of India was best placed to create that impact and take the right positive message to every corner of the country. But we had a challenge: a misplaced notion of contaminated surfaces kept people from buying newspapers. Despite this irrational fear of contamination from newspapers, we had to ignite a flame of hope, that would cut through the misinformation and fearmongering, and encourage vaccination. OUR OBJECTIVE: A multi-media campaign that would reach… • TOI Print: 17.3 million • TV: 0.46 Mn weekly Integrated Media Engagement: Over 1 Mn

Describe the creative idea

Negative content is often more compelling and seductive, and spreads faster. Social media perpetuates this cycle of negative news by creating echo chambers, where similar content is constantly being displayed to the users. With a lack of reliable new COVID data on their dashboards, many users instead found inflammatory ‘fake news’ while scrolling. Our creative idea had to cut through this bubble, so we reinforced the effort to promote vaccines by connecting a Shot of Vaccine to India’s overall ambition of spreading hope. This was expressed through a single line message ‘A SHOT OF HOPE’. Through the creative device of two hands cradling a syringe, this became a symbol for hope that the nation so desperately needed in times of COVID despair. But we couldn’t just talk about a shot of hope, we literally had to inject hope into a stressed nation. We had to walk the talk.

Describe the strategy

We had to engage people, but many were afraid to touch the newspaper. So, we made it an integrated multi-media effort with each media playing a role. • Print had informative newspaper ads, news bytes featuring full range of topics from facts regarding Covid, expert advice, mental health and spirituality and FAQs on lockdown, home-case and such important Covid topics. Spiritual masters, doctors, journalists and other key opinion leaders were our content creators. • Social media Influencers spread this hope through knowledge, guidance, facts, & useful news to counter fake news • TV became our key media to spread credible information about Covid. We extensively used Live digital meets and panel discussions to disseminate the information on TV. All this instilled hope, dispelled misplaced fears and drew people to the newspaper as a point of legitimate information – which was the need of the time.

Describe the execution

The campaign was built on the following pillars, executed across print, digital, TV and mobile messaging: • The Times of India Guide:Easy to comprehend guide on critical facts compiled by our editors and panel of experts. • Times Verified:Busted myths on social media. • Webinars:On medical infrastructure, economic revival with prominent personalities like CEA Govt of India Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant etc. • Pan-India Social Influence:Top Influencers from different fields, singer Shaan, chef Sanjeev & Kunal Kapur, politician Jyotiraditya Scindia, and many more supported the initiative by sharing hope and spreading positivity. • Voice Your Opinion Poll:A Poll (print & digital) to help our readers voice their opinions on multiple issues during the pandemic. • Online Collective Meditation:A Yoga Day special edition to meditate for hope, healing and happiness. • FAQs:Addressing Vaccine and Covid Related queries by experts - doctors, scientists, government officials and spiritual masters.

List the results

1. REACH: a. Total Reach: 110 Million + nation-wide b. TOI Print Reach: 17.3 Million+ c. Total Digital Reach: 90 Million+ d. TV Reach of all webinars – 0.46 Mn (average weekend viewership) e. SMS marketing:to re-direct and view correct information. Database of 675,000 reached. f. Integrated Media Engagement on queries, polls, website and webinars:Over 1.3 Mn 2. ENGAGEMENT: a. Influencers Reach with Likes & Shares touched 38 million b. 8000 Queries received & resolved for Ask the expert & Voice your Opinion c. Print (TOI and Newspaper in Education): A series of weekly articles and guides for adults and school students. 350+ positive articles covered and 2000+ queries received and resolved 3. IMPACT: a. A Shot of Hope helped dispel the initial hesitancy amongst many people towards taking the vaccine. It also helped identify bottlenecks in vaccine production and distribution leading to rapid scaling up of India’s vaccination effort.