Power of Print – Times of India Group & Croma launch 4th edition

Leveraging the power of print to highlight the importance of masks

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Times of India
Power of Print 4th edition opens on 19 January (image credit Times Group)

After three successful editions of ‘Power of Print,’ the Times of India Group is back with the
competition’s fourth edition. The unique ‘Power of Print’ initiative by the Bennett-Coleman Times of India Group invites creative professionals, communicators, and agencies to build an impactful print campaign given a real brief from an actual client.

Electronic, white, and computer goods retail chain Croma is again partnering with The Times Group to invite all communication agencies to come up with and compete with award-winning campaigns. Croma’s brief this year is imperative in the current scenario – to design a campaign that will get the widest public to accept the mask as the most logical solution to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the world now knows the need, importance, and necessity of the mask, its usage is still mostly limited to a single selfish purpose –i.e., to safeguard ‘ME.’ Croma wants to change the narrative and get the reading public to view masks from a different lens altogether.

The campaign’s primary objective should be to change the narrative from wearing a mask is important for ‘ME’ – to, ’a mask is essential to protect the world from ME.’ At an emotional level, the print campaign needs to deliver the message: “I do not have the right to put anyone else’s life at risk.”

The secondary objective is to position Croma as a customer-centric retail brand. The messaging should project Croma as safe and encouraging a high standard of customer consciousness with the critical message that a mask is not merely a medium to protect you from the world. It is, in fact, a simple device that protects your loved ones and the world from you. Creative professionals are welcome to participate in teams of two. Individual and group entries of students are accepted as well. The submission opens on 19 January, and while the last date of submission is 12 February 2021. The preliminary judging will take place from 18 to 22 February, and the final judging will happen on 26 February 2021 for agencies and between 27 February and 3 March 2021 for students. The awards will be presented on 5 March.

This year, the Power of Print brief will also be open for entries in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, and Bengali through The Times Group’s language publications. The entries will be judged by a jury comprising Senthil Kumar of Wunderman Thompson, Preeti Vyas of Vyas Giannetti, Kainaz Karmakar of Ogilvy, Russell Barett of BBH, KV Sridhar of Hypercollective, and Ritesh Ghoshal of Croma.

The winning team stands a chance to win the Power of Print trophy and see their campaign released in the pages of Time of India Group publications supported by a multi-crore budget.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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