The Hindu Business Line : BBC World embarks on India-centric campaign

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Mumbai Jan. 30 It's direct. It's simple. It emotionally appeals to the viewer. It is BBC World's first India-centric ad campaign. "With the way India is growing and the position it is taking on the world map today, it was the right time to create more relevance and awareness for how international news is broadcast on BBC World," said Ms Vaishali Sharma, Head of Marketing and Communications for India.

The campaign is the next stage in the channel's marketing strategy, following its global "Putting News First" campaign two years ago.

BBC World did a lot of research to understand how viewers think and then came up with the idea of taking events happening in far away parts of the globe and showing how they affect life in India. Thus logging in the Amazon basin leads to floods in Mumbai and unrest in the West Asia leads to unstable fuel prices.

"We took themes that are relevant to viewers in India," Ms Sharma said. "If you look at petrol, prices are going up and down, up and down, so it was a relevant and interesting theme to take up."

Designed by Vyas Giannetti Creative, the roughly three-week long campaign incorporates television and the Internet as well as outdoor ads in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Kerala. There was also a live recreation of the ads in the Pantaloon showroom in Phoenix Mills in Mumbai on January 25 and 26.

However, while the ad campaign may be India-centric, the channel still has no plans to go "Indian" with its programming, choosing to stick to its core strengths of collecting and analysing news from around the world.

"We intend to stay true to our position and our USP," Ms Sharma said. "What makes us stand apart is that with India wanting to know more and more [about international affairs], viewers in India can get all the analysis and all the in-depth coverage in every field from BBC World."

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