Sangeeta Tanwar
Media

STAR News rolls out brand campaign

The news channel's brand campaign is based on the theme, 'Don't Just Watch News, Watch STAR News'

The Hindi news channel, STAR News has rolled out a brand campaign, in an attempt to further differentiate its brand from others.

The brand campaign, beginning today, is a shift from the news channel's previous attempts to promote individual news programmes; while this time, the campaign is designed to promote the brand - the news channel - itself. The campaign is based on the theme, 'Don't Just Watch News, Watch STAR News'.

STAR News rolls out brand campaign
The commercial for the campaign features one of the STAR News' popular faces, Deepak Chaurasia doing a news story, which is subsequently picked up by other Hindi news channels, such as Aaj Tak, Zee News and India TV. The commercial shows an irate news watcher switching back to STAR News, where anchor Chaurasia is busy giving viewers fresh updates on the same news story.
STAR News rolls out brand campaign
Commenting on the objective and message of the brand campaign, Neeraj Sanan, marketing head, MCCS, says, "The campaign is an attempt to bring out the product differentiation within the Hindi news category. In an environment where frivolous news coverage impacts the credibility of news, ending up blurring the product differentiation, it becomes important to bring forward the strength and positives of the brand offering itself."

Sanan calls the brand campaign an effort to break away from a commodity called Hindi news channels. He denies that the theme and tone of the commercial are designed to take digs at competitors. Instead, he points out that the entire film captures the discerning news consumers' choice of a brand, which offers them not just 'news' but real-time, first-on-the-block information, with equally quick and detailed follow-ups.

The brand campaign has been conceptualised and executed by STAR News' in-house creative agency, Central Creative Cell. The three-week campaign is a 360-degree initiative spread across TV, print, radio and outdoor. The media planning has been done by STAR News' media agency, Mindshare.

STAR News has picked up advertising slots on general entertainment channels, including STAR Plus, Zee TV and Sony. It has targeted print publications such as Amar Ujala, Dainik Jagran, Lokmat and Divya Bhaskar. On radio, the campaign will reach out to people through Radio City.

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