Mathrubhumi says goodbye to 'foolish stones'

DDB Mudra South and East's print campaign for Mathrubhumi highlighted the government projects in Kerala that never take off and get wasted away for years

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | April 10, 2015

Every year, come April 1, numerous brands across the world try to humour their consumers with bone-tickling campaigns.

This year, Mathrubhumi, through their classified pages, apprehended that the people of Kerala (like all Indians) aren't made fools of only on April 1. It happens every day of every month and often for years.

When Mathrubhumi did a check, they concluded that every year, the State Government of Kerala announces numerous projects and public benefit programmes with great fanfare. Yet, apart from an announcement, the projects never take off and get wasted away for years and decades. One can easily find such projects in plenty across the length and breadth of Kerala.

This apathy by the Government made Mathrubhumi Classifieds turn the tables and celebrate April Fool's Day with a powerful message to the people and the Government. The brand, along with the Kochi office of DDB Mudra South and East, launched an interactive print campaign – 'Goodbye foolish stones', starting March 19, 2015.

The creative of the print campaign showed foundation stones of largely publicised government projects. These foundation stones were the first and last step of the developments. There has been no progress made on these schemes after their inauguration. Even as everything around it is in a state of absolute decay and ruin, the foundation stone stands – a stark reminder of outright government indifference.

The copy of the ads appealed the readers to “open their eyes and react”. A call to action was generated, wherein the readers were requested to act as citizen journalists and share instances of such neglect by the government through pictures, emails, WhatsApp, or by contacting Mathrubhumi's agents and reporters.

The publication received over 1,000 claims in just three days. The brand also conducted its own enquiry and investigated every claim.

After collecting all the true claims, the newspaper carried a special supplement on April Fool's Day, mentioning all the verified instances sent by the people of Kerala. This supplement was specially shared with the Kerala Chief Minister.

Jayakrishnan N, Cluster Head, Mathrubhumi, elaborated, “April Fool's Day is an occasion for real and virtual pranks predominantly played by the youth. This year, we decided to participate not just by playing the prank, but bringing to light the pranks that are played on people by politicians for ages. Mathrubhumi wanted to connect with the younger audiences using classifieds by elevating the conversations beyond the paradigm of transactions. The campaign has been instrumental in helping us to that.”

Commenting on the campaign, Dominic Savio, Vice-President, DDB Mudra South and East – Kochi, said, “The Mathrubhumi Classifieds campaign resulted in people enthusiastically owning the campaign, besides contributing to a greater good towards the society and creating an impact. It was overwhelming to see people integrating the campaign with their own social media channels delivering maximum reach for the campaign.”

Jaffer Vemmully, Senior Creative Director, DDB Mudra South and East, added here, “People in Kerala are very active on social media when it comes to raising their voices for or against something, or for activism. They post pictures, share experiences, create groups, etc. But this campaign has helped us translate that activism to a newspaper. Mathrubhumi Classifieds gave the people an opportunity to react and highlight the issues around them.”

The Print AD:

Click on the image to enlarge.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Credits:

President, DDB Mudra South & East: Ranji Cherian

Office Head: Dominic Savio, Vice President

Creative team: Siraj Thyagarajan, Arun Shankar, Jaffer Vemmully

Account Management: Bijith Balachandran

Account Planning: Padmapriya Muralidharan

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com