Big issues for India tackled in Times Group's creative competition

Mar 02, 2021 at 07:50 pm by Staff


India's Times Group is working for change, with an annual competition for marketing creative.

With this year's event under way, organisers have taken a moment to review the success of earlier competitions.

Having partnered with Times last year, Infinity Retail (Croma) from Tata Group is back in 2021 for the competition's fourth year, again with a brief which allows them to use their creativity to make a big difference for India.

Both initiatives involve a change in behaviour. Last year the theme of 'e-waste management' was designed to encourage people to discard their e-waste responsibly.

Creative strategist Malcolm Raphael write in INMA's Ideas blog of Croma's support system to collect and discard old electronics in a safe and responsible manner. "The winning campaign came from a small independent agency called Collateral, which looked at the irreversible damage discarded electronics do to the environment.

"This is another aspect of POP: democratisation of opportunity, in which small, independent agencies can compete with much larger players," he says.

This year's brief from Croma is "contextual and extremely imperative" in today's pandemic world - Develop a campaign to influence people to wear a mask, but with a different motivation.

The primary objective of the campaign is to shift thinking from 'Wearing a mask to protect me' to 'a mask is essential to protect the world from me'. Given the surge in cases around the world and the incidence of asymptomatic carriers, the campaign at an emotional level aims to deliver the message that 'I do not have the right to put anyone else's life at risk'.

Collateral, a small independent agency, won the 2020 competition by showing the irreversible damage done to the earth by discarded electronics.

Now in its fourth year, the Times Power of Print campaign is inviting creative minds to make a difference through impactful print campaigns. This one-of-a-kind contest from the Times Group encourages creative teams at agencies to compete to develop the most compelling and effective campaign on a designated topic. At the same time, it draws attention to important issues facing India.

In its first year, the Power of Print initiative won a gold at the Abby Awards, also known as 'the Oscars of Indian advertising'. "Since then, it has continued to see overwhelming participation from the creative community every year," says Raphael.

In addition to a trophy, the winning team sees its campaign published in Times of India group publications. Agencies of all sizes are invited to compete in the campaign. Since its inception, the Power of Print competition has attracted more than 800 entries.

Nestlé India sponsored the first two years, with a campaign to ''Educate the girl child', followed by an initiative to 'Educate parents on the right nutrition for their kids'.

"Both years saw an enthusiastic response and attracted high-quality entries," says Malcolm Raphael.

Sections: Newsmedia industry

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