CNBC partnered with MOT India in the context of three core challenges:

• Create a distinct campaign that would differentiate India in a saturated travel marketplace

• Target the hard-to-reach audience of premium and affluent travelers across APAC and EMEA

• Identify and communicate a distinct side of India – regions unfamiliar and appealing to the target audience

CNBC was briefed to inspire and educate audiences that India has something to offer everyone, based on pre-defined audience clusters:

• Off-the-beaten track travellers seeking unique experiences

• Culture and heritage enthusiasts

• Food enthusiasts

CNBC and MOT India content partnership objectives:

• Reach affluent travellers who earn minimum of USD$100,00 per year

• Deliver over 2m video views in two campaign phases (6 weeks each)

• Deliver a minimum 10,000 social reactions

• 200,000-page views to experienceindia.online in four weeks

• Minimum 50% brand recall

To ensure we delivered a robust campaign, we informed our strategy through first party audience insights and data points sourced through CNBC’s premium traveller research study. This allowed us to identify 1) unique audience travel interests 2) media consumption habits and assess existing knowledge of India.

The study highlighted four core audience interests:

• Trying local foods

• Seeking unique experiences off main tourist routes

• Connecting with history and authentic local culture

• Connecting with nature

We also researched lesser-known locations across India that would meet the client’s core focus clusters and resonate with CNBC audience interest. This resulted in identifying destinations which had not been covered in previous campaigns and would be new for CNBC’s discerning, affluent audience.

For ‘Journey Through India’ editorial series, CNBC’s news team identified tech/retail entrepreneurs/opportunities to inspire CNBC’s audience. ‘My India’ influencers were also carefully selected according to focus clusters.

We developed a dual content strategy that would appeal to premium travel audiences, amplified across CNBC’s owned and operated platforms plus MOT India’s channels, underpinned by audience data targeting.

Through our research we identified that mobile is the preferred device for our audience to consume content. Rich imagery and high impact visual storytelling was the most effective way to captivate their interest with authentic local representatives providing insight along the way.

Based on our research, we paired locations with experiences that would resonate with target audiences. For the commercial campaign:

• Ladakh, Jaisalmer, Kerala, Hyderabad to appeal to foodies, cultural enthusiasts, nature lovers and intrepid travellers

• Pundicherry, Jaipur to appeal to foodies, culture enthusiasts and intrepid travellers

• Hampi, Ajanta Caves to appeal to culture enthusiasts, intrepid travellers and nature lovers

For the editorial series, we targeted audiences with interests in five regions: Goa, Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

We implemented:

‘Journey Through India’ – 5 x 10min films (CNBC anchor: Tom Chitty) ran across CNBC’s YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter channels.

‘My India’ – 9 x brand films and photojournalism series (hosted on CNBC.com: experienceindia.online) deployed on-the-ground photojournalists to source unique local stories/perspectives. To deliver an authentic cinematic experience, our production crew utilized drone filming and anamorphic lenses. Design work was mobile-first and our page enabled progressive loading, streamlining the experience.

To optimize cross-platform amplification strategy results and ensure audience appeal on CNBC.com, we:

- Constructed 40-50 headline/image variations for A/B testing, in partnership with Taboola and Adparlour to boost off-platform promotion

- Implemented tracking pixels to monitor traffic quality and aid retargeting activity (we created look-a-like models to enhance promotional capabilities)

- Reviewed (mid-campaign) the highest performing headline creatives and adapted further to improve audience traction and ensure fresh creative messaging

Campaign duration: October to December 2018.

Reach affluent travellers who earn USD$100K+ p/a – we over-indexed on high income earners:

o 24% more likely to have $150,000+ income

o 1.7x more likely to work for large companies

o 1.3x more likely to be higher end/luxury travellers

Deliver over 2m video views, minimum 10,000 social reactions, 200,000 page views to the digital feature site:

o 5.7M video views across the 6 cinematic brand films produced

o 12,269 shares, 78,498 likes, and 1,630 comments on social (i.e. 68,238 social reactions)

o 82% of audience described branded content as very appealing; generating 606K page views and 457K unique visitors. Average engagement time 4 minutes and 2000 click throughs to the incredibleindia.org website

o Expected YouTube impressions: 100K. Actual delivered: 900K+

o Expected Facebook impressions: 1m. Actual delivered: 28.5m

Minimum 50% brand recall:

o 75% brand recall and 74% increased consideration of India as a travel destination soon