Situation

Once famous as the ‘garden city’, Bengaluru (aka Bangalore) is now notorious for its terrible traffic. It is the baseline against which all other traffic in India is compared.

Infrastructural solutions by the municipal authorities and the state government (flyovers, metro rail) have not kept pace with Bengaluru’s traffic congestion. Many brands have created campaigns around it, comics have written jokes about it, memes and songs abound. But for the world’s second most congested city (Source: TomTom Traffic Index 2022), real change isn’t felt on the ground.

Brief

The Times of India (TOI), India’s largest circulated English daily, had written about Bengaluru’s traffic plenty of times. But this time, just writing was not enough.

The brief was simple:

• Don’t just do a good-looking ad campaign.

• Don’t talk big picture.

• Solve the traffic problem for the people of Bengaluru.

Objective

Real, immediate, measurable impact felt by commuters.

Decoding that there is no big fix or magical solution for the big traffic problem of Bengaluru, TOI kept two criteria in developing its creative idea – one that actually makes a difference.

• Involve the commuters – Do not limit efforts to just the government and municipal bodies. Include those most affected by the campaign – the commuters. The commuters face these issues daily and the best answers can be found with them, but nobody asks them.

• Go small to solve big – Not every traffic problem needs a flyover or underpass. Multiple local-level fixes, if executed systematically and in large enough numbers, can be very effective in unchoking regular traffic snarls.

The big idea – Unjam Bengaluru

TOI created ‘Unjam Bengaluru’, a campaign that invited citizens to play their part in solving their beloved city’s infamous traffic problem, one chokepoint at a time.

Primary target audience – Bengalureans

The well-informed, progressive, tech-savvy, and city-proud residents of Bengaluru.

They flit between the realms of print and digital. They hold a global perspective, yet their hearts are firmly rooted in the pulse of Bengaluru. They want a change that reflects their evolving worlds.

Secondary target audience – Traffic Police

Just including the commuters would mean highlighting problems. To solve these, TOI engaged with the city’s traffic police.

Approach

TOI used its connection to both readers and authorities to bridge conversations. A micro-level approach was adopted to decongest the city one chokepoint at a time. The strategy was to make small changes that would then snowball into a large impact.

This involved:

1. A commuter flagging an issue.

2. TOI escalating to Bengaluru’s traffic police, while also drawing attention to the issue.

3. TOI following up on a resolution and then flagging the issue as resolved.

The heart of the execution was creating a first-of-its-kind user generated traffic map, hosted on a mobile responsive website, where people could report traffic issues real-time. Once a chokepoint picked up enough +1s, it would be flagged to the city’s traffic police. An integrated communication campaign attracted more citizens to participate.

Print ads – 10 print ads spotlighted issues, invited people to participate, and reported progress.

Videos – A launch film kickstarted conversations and bite-sized vlogs in collaboration with celebrity RJ Rakesh featured entertaining interviews with commuters.

OOH – Hoardings, LEDs at key traffic chokepoints and high footfall locations drew attention.

Print and online editorial coverage – Interviews with concerned citizens, the traffic police commissioner, and in-depth coverage of citizen-spotlighted issues created an earned media narrative.

Online – Conversations with the #unjambengaluru were lent further credibility by TOI hosting a Twitter Space with Dr. MA Saleem, Special Commissioner, Bengaluru Traffic.

‘Unjam Bengaluru’ generated 8,000+ suggestions from residents, of which 100+ were acted on by authorities. As the campaign gained momentum, it was organically picked up by the authorities, who later acted on 25 suggestions before TOI could even report them.

The campaign also resulted in an approximate 10% growth in average circulation, 2X our already ambitious target – proving our strong engagement with readers translated into them seeing TOI as the newspaper of Bengaluru!

We also performed well on our marketing objective, garnering 72% Awareness among TOI readers and a remarkable 57% Awareness among non-TOI readers.

Supplementary results that showcase the success of the campaign include:

• Reach – 18.5M

• Total Engagement – 7.3 M

• Engagement Rate – 24%

The success was so overwhelming that TOI extended its eight-week campaign for more suggestions pour in. TOI even published 25 impact stories to highlight these changes, encouraging further inputs.