Shamni Pande
Advertising

Mathrubhumi gets a unique set of brand endorsers

The latest campaign for the second largest circulated Malayalam daily features some of Kerala’s leading advertisers vouching for Mathrubhumi

A satisfied consumer is your best spokesperson and the best brand ambassador you can lay your hands on. It's a marketing maxim that Mathrubhumi, the second largest circulated Malayalam daily, has embraced wholeheartedly. For the publication has just unleashed a campaign in which some of Kerala's leading advertisers and brand owners are seen vouching for Mathrubhumi. The campaign, which is being handled by Maitri, has just broken in publications such as India Today, Outlook and Swagat, as well as in most major English dailies.

The first ad in the campaign, for instance, features VS Pradeep, director, Cholayil Group (the owners of the Medimix brand), where Pradeep says, "Mathrubhumi's strength as a credible newspaper has helped Medimix become a strong brand." The campaign features, among others, marketers and entrepreneurs such as TS Pattabhiraman, managing director, Kalyan Silks (one of the most prominent retail chains in Kerala), Kochouseph Chittilappilly, managing director, V-Guard and ME Meeran, managing director, Eastern Condiments.

"This is the first time a media brand is using ‘real' brand endorsers," says C Muthu, executive director, Maitri, Kochi. "These people are actually advertisers with Mathrubhumi, and not simply famous faces who don't even use the brand they endorse." Muthu adds that the strategy has paid off. "It has proved to be highly effective in cutting ice with many entrepreneurs in the state, and has managed to get the brand a lot of attention," he avers.

As mentioned above, Mathrubhumi is Kerala's second largest daily, with a readership of 75.48 lakh, as per 2002 NRS figures. Traditional rival Malayala Manorama (MM) stands at over 1 crore in the corresponding period. Choosing to counter MM's sway, Mathrubhumi had launched a frontal attack on the former with an ad showing the newspaper raddiwala weighing a huge pile of the same day's Manorama. The body copy had hammered home the point: ‘Today's newspaper sold as waste paper? Selling undistributed copies of today's newspaper is, for some, a means of establishing circulation. But never at the Mathrubhumi.'

However, this particular series of ads had to be suspended by Mathrubhumi when the Advertising Standards Council of India upheld a complaint by Malayala Manorama that Mathrubhumi's claims "were not substantiated and unfairly discredited competition".

Of course, since then, the tack has changed significantly, which was only too obvious in the subsequent ‘Onam campaign' that talked of the festive season, and linked it to shopping and Mathrubhumi.

Now, with its latest campaign, Mathrubhumi has clearly decided to put its money where its mouth is… literally speaking. © 2003 agencyfaqs!

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