‘I Am Kolkata’, other TOI campaigns win six awards at INMA 2024
Times of India | 27 April 2024
Kolkata: The Times of India has won big at International News Media Association (INMA) 2024, bagging six awards for its campaigns, including one for ‘I Am Kolkata’ for best use of generative AI in customer facing products. The campaigns blended ideas with creativity to spread awareness about issues affecting peoples’ daily lives, such as traffic safety and alternatives to single-use plastic.
The INMA competition, which evaluates news media companies across two segments of national brands and regional brands, attracted 771 entries from 245 news media brands in 43 countries.
The ‘I Am Kolkata’ campaign was a celebration of the city that for most residents is an emotion — everyone has a special way to describe it. Often attributing phrases and poems to the city, some call it “Kolkata, my home”, some says it is “a city with a soul”.
TOI asked Kolkatans to share a phrase to express their love for the city. For those who were finding it difficult to stitch their words together, a ChatGPT plugin was incorporated in the I Am Kolkata website that gave phrases on the city based on the inputs given. It became the innovative force of the campaign, using people’s emotions as a palette to bring Kolkata's charm to the digital world, creating an immersive experience through generative AI.
TOI carried articles on 30+ unique topics around the city and supporting videos were made on social media with top photography communities from the city. People of Kolkata engaged digitally, giving a reach of 18 million, 7.5 million engagements, and 25.4 million video views.
TOI’s ‘Road So Annoying’ campaign, focused on Chennai traffic, which aimed at highlighting traffic issues using sarcasm and vital content, won three awards under the categories of best public relations or community service campaign, best use of social media and best use of print.
The ‘Road So Annoying’ campaign increased Chenn-ai’s traffic awareness, with 22 million social engagements and the chief minister and other celebrities retweeting the campaign. Traffic challans jumped to 202,000, an 89% hike, with 25,000 for stop line violations, and 565 new stop lines, reflecting the campaign’s success in improving traffic adherence.
The ‘Unplastic India’ campaign, which focused on creating public awareness around the ban on the use of single-use plastic and educating about alternatives, bagged two awards. It was the winner in the ‘best use of print’ category and finished second in ‘best public service or community service campaign’.
The campaign used a series of startling — even shocking — images of sea animals to stun readers to read more about the issue and identify solutions for the same. To build a habit of environment-friendly choices, 21 tips were shared in the newspaper to eliminate single-use plastic over 21 days. The key call to action — signing an online pledge to eliminate single-use plastic — saw participation from over 5 lakh people.