Indian media landscape, being highly cluttered and commoditised, has very little to differentiate.News is frequently spiced-up and sensationalized in order to gain higher readership/viewership. The readers get swayed by the media and form their opinion basis what the media exposes them to. Their thoughts therefore remain devoid of independent thinking. Maharashtra also mirrors a similar situation. Aiming to be a catalyst to trigger independent thinking, Divya Marathi launched its ‘Swatantra Vichaar’ (Think Independent) campaign.

Since the two leading Marathi newspapers are owned by political leaders, we deliberated on using ‘neutrality’ as our campaign thought. However, ‘neutrality’ in itself is a category norm, so we decided to focus on ‘independence’ which in itself encapsulated ‘neutrality’. The tagline for the campaign was finalised as 'Swatantra Padho, Swatantra Socho' (Read independent, Think independent) and hence, the challenge was to position Divya Marathi as Maharashtra’s only Independent newspaper.

The six month campaign hit the ground with a 360 degree integrated plan including a dynamic mix of print ads, radio spots, innovative outdoors,TV commercials, on-ground activation,creative trade mailers,social media promotion and marketing research. The campaign was launched with OOH teasers on prominent sites with high visibility in Aurangabad, Nasik and Jalgaon.Teasers had three thought provoking questions namely Lokanchan Mat Konachan Mat Aahe (Does public opinion really mirror your opinion?),Tumche Vichaar Swatantra Aahet Kaye (Is your opinion independent?),Tumhala Mat swatantraye aahe kaye (Is your opinion independent?).

The campaign was revealed with the key message- Vachan Swatantra Chintan Swatantra (Read independent to Think Independent) followed by first ever Marathi Literature Fest in Nasik on the theme 'Confluence of Independent Thinkers'.This event saw 21 sessions from 54 authors expressing their independent views on a variety of subjects ranging from art,mythology literature and intolerance.