Think local, act global

Tailor-made for India, BBC's new ad campaign seeks to inform as well educate masses.

Localisation of advertising campaigns of global companies has been happening for quite some time now. But for the first time an international news channel has come up with a campaign that addresses the local audience "" BBC has launched a new campaign for the Indian market.

Now doesn't that make you wonder "" why an India-specific ad campaign after so long? "India has become very important in the global arena from several perspectives. The viewers want to be informed about global events and seek to understand how these impact their lives," says Vaishali Sharma, head, marketing and communications, BBC India.

The campaign has three TVCs talking about different things happening across the world and how these can influence the lives of Indian people.

The first creative talks about how global fashion trends have changed the Indian textile industry as well as the clothing style of the people.

The second talks about how the crisis in Iraq and the Middle East has had a massive impact on the petroleum prices in India, and the third talks about how deforestation has had an impact on the environment.

Says Sanjay Siphamalini, executive director, Vyas Giannetti Creative, "We want BBC to be positioned as a channel which helps viewers understand global issues and how they can change our day-to-day lives."

This is not the first campaign that BBC has launched for India. It had brought its global campaign "Putting News First" a couple of years back. "While news remains the focus of the campaign, we want people to know how it is going to affect their lives," adds Sharma.

While the ad spend ratio will be divided majorly over TV, the channel would also carry out online promotions as well as undertake outdoor activities in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

"The challenge was to accentuate the importance of credible international news and its relevance to an average Indian," says Siphamalani.

According to him, people somehow are not in sync with global news and that is why tuning to BBC will make them more aware. So, what are you waiting for?