“In line with the theme of the festival this year which is ‘Momentum’, HT brings to the festival its inherent momentum. It would be very evident to you from the in-paper campaign, the digital and outdoor campaign that we have given it a complete makeover, making it bigger and better.” Said Nitin Chaudhry, Business Head, Hindustan Times, Mumbai.
In an interaction with MediAvataar .com, Nitin talked about the brand association with the magnum opus art’s festival- Kalaghoda and how the company is going all out in bringing a change with the readers of Mumbai through their intensive marketing detonation.
We visited the event arena and the only word that wedged to our imagination was- SIMPLY SPECTACULAR- A job well done! Here is the Q&A with him…….
MediAvataar: Why the Kalaghoda Arts Festival?
Nitin: We are doing a multitude of events and campaigns to connect with the people of Mumbai and give back to the people of Mumbai. In the form of either civic issues like the Unclog Mumbai campaign, HT for Mumbai Awards, pothole horror kind of campaigns or in the cultural and social milieu of the city with events like No-tv day, Mumbai’s Most Stylish awards and now the Kala Ghoda festival.
Kala Ghoda is a step for getting closer to the people of Mumbai and seeping into the cultural and social milieu of the city.
MediAvataar: What changes did HT bring to the event?
Nitin: In line with the theme of the festival this year which is ‘Momentum’, HT brings to the festival its inherent momentum. It would be very evident to you from the in-paper campaign, the digital and outdoor campaign that we have given it a complete makeover, making it bigger and better.
A completely new vertical has been added to the festival which is ‘Urban design and architecture’. In today’s situation of Mumbai traffic is the biggest challenge, this I feel is a very important addition to the festival where the probable and possible solutions to the problems of Mumbai will come up through art installations, panel discussions with urban designers and architects and through generating general public interest in the subject.
Addition to the literature festival is some of our eminent editors who are now part of this festival, providing it a completely new perspective. The festival now also includes international authors in the literature vertical which hasn’t ever been the case before.
And we bring on stage people like Mallika Sarabhai who have not been on stage for the past 6-7 years now.
MediAvataar: What is the current readership of the paper in Mumbai?
Nitin: We now have a readership of 13.62 lakhs in the city which is over 60% that of the no.1 paper in the city and six times that of the no.3 paper. We are very pleased that all our efforts over the past few years have been validated by the new IRS study.
MediAvataar: How are you promoting the event as the new sponsor/presenter?
Nitin: We have a complete 360 degree media plan to promote it. We have our own radio channel fever 104, which is very popular in the city. Of course we use our in-paper which now reaches some 14 lakh odd readers as I just mentioned. We are using social media in a very big way through facebook, twitter and our own microsite (kalaghoda.hindustantimes.com) and you would have seen the absolutely stunning outdoors which have taken the city by a storm!
MediAvataar: How important you think is the route of Art and Culture to get through to the hearts of your readers?
Nitin: I think in today’s absolutely fast paced life bringing back art and culture is very important to provide that stress buster to the readers. We as a newspaper I think have a very important role in doing so, as people place a lot of trust and credibility in our newspaper and spend a lot of time reading our newspaper and therefore we have a role to play in bringing art and culture back which was otherwise fading away from our daily lives.
MediAvataar: Which are the other events in the pipeline for this year?
Nitin: So we will do our regular calendar events like the Mumbai’s most stylish awards in March which the entire Bollywood fraternity looks forward to. It’ll be followed by our education calendar which will be kicked off by HT Scholarship next week and then campus calling, fresh on campus, mission MBA and then in the later part of the year we will have the second edition of the HT for Mumbai awards which will also be bigger and better this time. And we’ll also be on the lookout for doing any other news events.
MediAvataar: With this displacement how do you want your newspaper to be positioned broadly?
Nitin: I think this very clearly positions us as the clear and the only alternative available in the city now and put us at a very very strong No. 2 with No. 3 being one-sixth of us, as I mentioned earlier.