TOI Used Social Media Marketing To Reach 1 Million People On Facebook For Its Campaign

About Times of India

Founded on 3rd November 1838 The Times of India has today evolved into the largest Indian English language daily newspaper of India. With the readership of more than 7.643 million as per the IRS report 2012 and still going strong it has been ranked 1st in terms of readership. Recently Time of India launched a campaign known as ”Mumbai Patrol” focusing on the city’s infrastructural, civic, safety, social issues and concerns that need immediate and prompt attention/intervention from the concerned government and authorities.

Business Objective of Times of India

• Creating awareness among the Mumbaikars about the campaign.
• Two fold objective of generating relativity and encouraging responses from more people.
• Populating this initiative of Mumbai Patrol among the masses.
• Encouraging and driving engagement on different social media networks.

Strategy/Approach Adopted By Times of India

TOI adopted the strategy of running the “Mumbai Patrol” campaign in 3 phases over a period of 3 months from 1st Feb 2014 to 31st March 2014.

Phase I included the launch of the campaign spread over 41 wards and 10 town-halls across the city. The Facebook page was created and topics like “Time to Wake up Mumbaikars” and #MumbaiPatrol started trending. It didn’t take long for people to take notice and within few hours of page creation, comments started pouring in with over 100 Mumbaikers voicing their thoughts and concerns. On twitter also people were coming out in full support and sharing their views. This response from people during first phase was quite overwhelming. They came forth with their views and thoughts regarding issues that required maximum attention from government and authorities.

In Phase II meetings were held in town halls of various wards, where important issues like safety, health, infrastructure etc. related to the campaign were discussed among common people and experts. Subsequent to this a series of pictures, topics and ward wise updates were posted on Twitter and Facebook which attracted many viewers. Comments started pouring in within few hours of updating. Mumbaikars almost instantly related to the Mumbai Patrol campaign and started sharing views/discussions on various social media networks and communities.

Mumbai Patrol campaign concluded in the Phase III. Here a video was created and promoted to conclude this campaign by directing and focusing the attention of the viewers (Mumbaikars) towards the problems and issues pertaining their respective areas and wards of the city.

Video with the theme “Don’t Let Our City Die” showcased the dilapidated condition of roads, drainage system, garbage collection and disposal system etc. The video was shared across all important social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. This strategy of promotion worked, as people started interacting with influencers sharing & exchanging tweets/views with solutions and suggestions they thought would not only improve but also make their City known to many as a ”CITY OF DREAMS” a better place. This video managed a reach of more than 5 lakh viewers through different social media channels, retweeted by over 150 twitter users and shared by more than 300 Facebook fans. In the end, Mumbaikars themselves provided a suggestions and solution.

Results Achieved By Times Of India

#MumbaiPatrol campaign in its last phase had an overwhelming response. It trended for more than 6 hrs. 20 minutes in India and over two hours worldwide. It engaged about 72,560 viewers, the overall reach was 1,207,462 with a viral factor of 293,819. Following were the results on different social media platforms:

• The campaign achieved a total reach of more than 1 Million Facebook fans.

1. The average likes per post were 77
2. Average reach per post was 10,554
3. Average daily likes on page were 1,390

• On Twitter the campaign engaged around 25,000 user accounts.

1. #MumbaiPatrol trended to reach out maximum viewers through the video.
2. Total number of Tweets were 7584.
3. Impressions 7,07,673
4. Total conversations were 353.

• On YouTube it garnered about more than 15 thousand organic views within 3 days of posting.

1. More than 100 comments on the video.

Learnings

Key findings from the case are as under:

• This campaign is one of the best examples of how to engage viewers quickly and effectively.
• Again for any social media campaign to succeed it is imperative to strategically integrate various social media channels as in this case where a video on YouTube was integrated and posted on the Facebook page and the Twitter handle.
• Posting pictures of live events and workshops related to the topic of interest helps in gaining more traction and enhances views.
• Talking and posting discussions about “Top of the Mind” issues help the users to easily relate with the topics and encourages engagement in the form of likes, shares, comments and suggestions.