NEW DELHI: Zee News has rolled out a print campaign, capitalising
on a news report in a leading financial daily which described it as "the
channel to watch".
In its reporting on last month's historic India-Pakistan peace summit
between the leaders of the two countries, The Economic Times stated that
Zee's diet of international updates and live coverage had caught "the
fancy of people across the border". The report also stated that Zee had
pipped "biggies like CNN and BBC".
The print-only campaign in the national daily, The Times of India,
featured a tear sheet of the report, with the tagline: "At last, India
and Pakistan agree on something".
Using white space judiciously, the ad featured the Zee News logo, with
the tagline: "Zee News is now the preferred news channel on both sides
of the border".
The advertising burst follows Zee Telefilms' decision to hand its
US$1 million Zee News account to McCann-Erickson, which is
handling both the creative and media briefs.
Percept Advertising was the incumbent on the Zee account. Zee's senior
vice-president for marketing, Partha Pratim Sinha, said: "No pitching
was done. We chose McCann-Erickson on the basis of its credentials."
The Zee campaign follows results from the Target Audience Measurement
report for Indian viewers for the week ending June 23, which put Hindi
news channel Aaj Tak in pole position and Zee in second place in the
news channel category.
The two were followed by Star News, BBC, CNBC and CNN respectively.
Media sources said that Zee's performance highlights the popularity of
programmes - which it has customised for audiences in India - across the
border.
