And they hit back and how!..in not one but 3 full frontal attacks. The Times Of India(TOI) had recently, around november, taken a dig at The Hindu with its campaign ‘Wake Up Chennai‘ where the taunt was clearly at The Hindu. As is its no nonsense and serious image, i thought that the newspaper would never respond to TOIs commercial. And i was proved wrong.
The Hindu commands a Numero Uno position in the Chennai market, you can call it the Rajnikant of newspapers in Chennai, followed by The Deccan Chronicle (Secondary data – to be verified). Now it has come up with its ‘Stay Ahead Of The Times’ campaign making an aggressive “up yours” counter attack at the TOI. And not just on television but through print ads.
The Old Lady of Bori Bunder didn’t just wake up Mount Road Mahavishnu, she literally taunted him to a wrestling match. Enjoy!
Agencies involved:
TOI : Taproot India
The Hindu : Ogilvy
PS: The YouTube video title shows Stay Ahead with The Hindu, while the campaign is Stay Ahead Of The Times. Wonder why a confusion or is it deliberately done so?
The TOI Wake Up Chennai [Taproot India] commercial below, see The Hindu shown at 0:59.
The Hindu – ‘Stay Ahead Of The Times’ [Ogilvy]. No explanation needed.
And this one…
And this one…
Ajit Joy
D.Nambiar
January 26, 2012
Ow! that’s like hitting each other where it hurts the most. Thank you for putting these up, really. Do Chronicle and TNIE have local TV ads as well?
Ajit Joy
January 26, 2012
Deccan Chronicle had one but it was like “just another commercial”. And moreover it comes second only to The Hindu. But now with these kind of aggressive marketing DC will have to wake up.
Rajiv Mathew
January 26, 2012
The Hindu’s response is fantastic!
Ajit Joy
January 26, 2012
Lol. Yes. We now need to wait and see how TOI responds!
Thank You for passing by Rajiv!
Arvind
January 27, 2012
The simple fact is that there is an element of truth in both the ads.. The hindu is terribly boring, while TOI is really nothing more than a tabloid!
Ajit Joy
January 27, 2012
I have never read The Hindu here in Mumbai.In fact i doubt if it has a presence here. So cannot rally comment on it. However, The Hindu Business LIne is indeed boring, if compared to the Economic Times.
And yes, TOI is a glamour paper!
Gaurav. C. Ail
January 27, 2012
Nice reply .. or counter advert …… but seriously the concept is good but the questions are plain stupid …… The Hindu cannot be pitted directly against the TOI … the Hindu is far far superior in terms of quality and news content to the TOI and this is one paper in India or probably the only one which doesn’t come with grammatical errors … however the TOI also covers all the news but more in a tabloid reporting format with loads of grammatical errors
Ajit Joy
January 27, 2012
Hehe yes the questions are idiotic, but they were meant to be like that i suppose.
Absolutely right about the TOI !
Raghunandan
January 27, 2012
Stay ahead with the Hindu, is mainly not to give, free publicity to TImes by mentioning Staying ahead of times in the heading, cause thats most read even if u dont watch the video.
So its intelligent to mention it only in the video, cause it makes sense there.
Ajit Joy
January 27, 2012
Oh, may be. Thank you passing by Raghunandan!
moriarty
January 27, 2012
reminds me of old coke Pespi battle
Ajit Joy
January 27, 2012
Yeah. Actually many of them recalled the Coke-Pepsi saga from those days. Hope it doesn’t turn out to be ugly and more aggressive.
Michael Vincent Louis
January 27, 2012
toi, this is not mumbai, tera dadagiri idhar nahi chalega
koolhead17
January 27, 2012
Hindu got it all wrong
Its a rip off from DNA ad where the newspaper claims there readers are aware of Bollywood Masala too. Piyush (Ogilvy) seems had DNA as there client too.
See this DNA ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvmfnd2WpP8
Ajit Joy
January 27, 2012
I chanced upon this video yesterday on a blog. But i felt it was too idiotic.:)
Thank you for passing by!
Mohan Lal
February 2, 2012
No. Not piyush. its some chap named Mukund Oleti, who;s a creative at Ogilvy Bangalore responible for the plagarism. Cheap.
Amol Kothawade (@amolkots)
January 27, 2012
great compilation…
Ajit Joy
January 27, 2012
and thank you for passing by!
Kundan Bhaduri
January 27, 2012
I think the TOI is going to fall flat. Unlikely to have a response to something like this. Hmm, on hindsight, I might be wrong.
PS: I read the TOI and I knew the answers to all those questions.
Prakash
January 27, 2012
i believe they have deliberately avoided taking the name TOI anywhere in the ad. Hence the title.
Shouvik
January 27, 2012
If you lip read, time of india is so obvious on every ones lips..
Ajit Joy
January 29, 2012
HAHA, yes!
Shaunna
January 27, 2012
Initially, I laughed a lot when I saw the ads.
Then I realized how horribly patronizing they were. The Hindu seems to be pushing us to perceive some knowledge as superior to others. For some of us that knowledge may matter more, but it doesn’t have to be for many others. If they think Hritik Roshan’s nick-name is more important, then I don’t see why their case should be taken on television, even if it is to get back at the Times of India, which may not be a paper I read but a paper which many others like to.
I read the Hindu, but I found it ironic that they thought of themselves as being “ahead of the times”.
Ask
January 28, 2012
I would respectfully differ. Some kind of knowledge is always better than the others. HR’s nick name, ash’s baby’s sex and size-0 heroine’s name are not really useful in terms of either quality or applicability.
Shiva Srinivasan
January 28, 2012
The Hindu did a fantastic job! The ad is meant to be awkward and mildly patronizing.Sure knowledge cannot be compared, but if you read the The Hindu and didn’t feel that it’s article and quality of journalism was “ahead of the times”,you must be reading a ToI the rest of India doesn’t get.
Shaunna
January 29, 2012
I, personally, would value details of Bollywood stars lesser than I would value other information.
I am a student of political science and love my subject and hence other topics would take priority over the rest. I do agree that some information, like pet-names of film stars would not be very applicable or help benefit a lot of people, but if some take a keen interest in it rather than something else then let them do so.
Sir, I’m not the biggest fan of Times of India either. I just feel that the Hindu, while choosing what to report on very well, seems to offer little in the form of a diverse set of alternatives, or for that matter even one alternative at many times.
Their editorials have grown increasingly homogeneous and critical without providing interesting alternatives which can strike well at policies which they seek to criticize at a broader level, which is important, but details which are important to readers who need to be well informed in order to form their own opinion get left out.
Many of us read the Hindu over other papers in India because it still chooses to report on many issues which other papers blatantly skip. But it just seemed important to be a little critical of the Hindu, especially when they chose to target another newspaper and its readers the way it did.
apk
January 28, 2012
Never thought that “The Hindu” would reply so strongly against “TOI” .
Obviuosly both newspapers strength are different and TOI should not made an issue of it initially.
G
January 28, 2012
I would appriciate ogily’s work in terms of creating such creative . This ad will help fo a single buy of HINDU , just to see what is content in it.
TIMES ki puri baja di hai !!! Tap root has big challenge now.
Gr8.
Vinit Taneja
January 28, 2012
When my daughter was 9 and growing up, I called up the Brand Director of TOI to tell him that i had to discontinue buying TOI because of its sleaze content. I got the reply that the paper focuses on giving people what they want and the youth of today wants that. I stopped buying TOI around that time.
Today, my daughter is 17 and i take a more balanced Hindustan Times. In Delhi, HT has already gone ahead of TOI in circulation.
I believe that the educated gentry has a responsibility to reject media that, instead of enhancing our cultural heritage, is doing its bit to accelerate the westernization in the name of “youth wants it”. We certainly do not want 50% plus divorces in India and a breakdown in relationships.
So quit being a tabloid TOI. Give us what we need rather than what we want.
Shankar
January 28, 2012
Example of gamesmanship instead of focusing on improving the product! All we get to see is entertainment–where’s the branding that connects with the customer?
The reality is that ToI has little news/analysis while The Hindu is boring. The “brand wars” can only help the agencies, neither the client nor the end customer!
martian4u
January 29, 2012
I beg to differ. you say DC is number 2. Wake up.. That was long ago. Times of india is certainly number 2 now and it is threatening Hindu big time. That is why Hindu is this aggressive. Thanks
Ajit Joy
January 29, 2012
Thanks for that info. I read it on a website. May be i am wrong.
Thank you!
Vijay Sharma
January 31, 2012
Just when you thought Taproot was going to wow them all. Great ads by the Hindu. Ogilvy doing a great job. Love the thought.
Pity I’m a Times loyalist. The ads seem to be mocking Mumbai Mirror pretty well though. The TOI has a great editorial board and offers the perfect mix. Haven’t read the Hindu though. So cant comment on the product. But hope there’s more to come from where this came.
Arvindh
January 31, 2012
Hindu boring? You must be slow-witted! Hindu crossword, best thing 6 days a week! Too bad TOI only has Bangalore Times in response 6 days a week!
SuperTramP
February 3, 2012
Thanks for the compilation!
Soumya
February 3, 2012
I am glad to see a paper like The Hindu fighting a war, and not surrendering like Deccan Herald did in Bangalore. What i would love to see is Hindu going places, TN and Ker are their strong hold, going to northern part of India and making a mark…
All the Best..