Times of India's 'Teach India' Campaign

Abstract:

This case is about The Times of India's (ToI) social marketing initiatives. Though TOI was one of the largest circulated newspapers in the world, it was criticized for promoting 'yellow journalism'. In order to build its brand image, TOI adopted a social marketing strategy and projected itself as an agent of social change by launching a series of social campaigns highlighting social issues. One of them was 'Teach India'. The 'Teach India' campaign was launched on July 6, 2008, with the objective of providing education to the unprivileged children in India and eradicating illiteracy. The campaign was inspired by TOI's earlier initiative 'Lead India' launched in August 2007. According to the feedback received from the 'Lead India' campaign, India would not be able to lead unless its populace was literate and that there was a need for citizens to come forward and contribute to the cause. It was for this purpose that the Teach India campaign was launched. The campaign was divided into two phases. The first phase invited citizens of the country to volunteer with a non-government organization (NGO) in their locality and spend two hours a week teaching underprivileged children. The second phase, which started at the end of 2008, selected students from top educational institutes all over the country who were willing to dedicate two years to teaching the underprivileged. To execute the campaign, TOI tied up with select NGOs in the field of education in multiple cities across India. Corporations, schools, and social organizations also lent their support to the campaign. The campaign was promoted through print, television, online, outdoor and on-ground events. While the campaign won some of the most prestigious advertising awards, experts remained divided in their opinion on whether TOI had adopted a genuine approach to initiating social changes in India or whether it was just a marketing gimmick to enhance the brand image of the Times Group. Issues: » Understand various issues and challenges is social marketing. » Study the social marketing campaigns launched by ToI and analyze whether ToI was successful in achieving the objectives of its campaigns. » Understand the role of cause-related marketing in enhancing brand image. » Explore ways to make the Teach India initiative could be made sustainable Introduction On December 16, 2009, leading Indian English daily The Times of India's (TOI) 'Teach India Let's Learn to Teach' (Teach India) campaign won the prestigious Grand Effie4 award for the Best Integrated Campaign of the Year. The award was given to JWT India for successfully executing the campaign. On selecting the campaign for the award, a jury member said that it was "a truly outstanding campaign that drove a real sea change in social attitudes, 'Teach India' won the Grand Effie convincingly due to its boldness and creativity, delivering real cultural relevance and, above all, outstanding business results."6 Launched on July 6, 2008, by the Times Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) wing of The Times of India group, in association with United Nations Volunteers7(UNV), the Teach India campaign was a social initiative whose objective was to build the nation by improving literacy and providing education to the unprivileged children in India. The idea behind the campaign was to bring together people who wanted to teach and those who wanted to learn. The campaign invited educated Indians to serve as volunteers and teach underprivileged children... The 'Teach India' Campaign Although the idea to launch the campaign was initiated in 2007, it took four months for TOI to develop the Teach India program. The campaign was launched on July 6, 2008. It was divided into two phases... Results According to the Times Group, the 'Teach India' campaign created a lot of buzz and within three weeks of the program being launched in July 2008, a total of 88,710 people had responded. Of these, 55,035 applied for the program...