MUMBAI: The popular belief is that readership of magazines is declining, and is declining possibly faster than newspapers. The new IRS 2017 numbers indicate a stupendous growth in magazine readership. Magazines almost doubled the total readership from 40 million in IRS 2014 to 78 million in the latest IRS 2017. The growth has come from the urban areas, which added 22 million readers; and also rural India added 17 million readers. That is a whopping 95 per cent growth in the total readership of magazines in India, and this growth is coming only from print and does not take into consideration the online portals. The total readership of newspapers also registered a growth during the same period, of 40 per cent.

Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) briefed agency Bang in the Middle to create a campaign that puts this 95 per cent growth in sharp focus. The campaign is devised to showcase the dramatic growth in readership.

For the agency, the creative challenge was large, the campaign could not be descriptive that just informed the readers about growth in readership. The campaign has to make the reader stop and drive the feeling that they knew reading magazine had never gone out of fashion.

The campaign is designed around the intrigue of number 95 per cent. The six ad campaigns build the growth in readership by making the ads contextual to the reader segments.

Speaking about the campaign, AIM President R Rajmohan says, “We at the association knew that magazine readership is very robust and when the new numbers were released it only added to our confidence. AIM took this opportunity to build on the habit of reading magazines and drive its relevance to both readers and advertisers.”

Bang in the Middle managing partner and CCO Prathap Suthan adds, “The brief was sharp and singular. Let the world know that total magazine readership has grown 95 per cent. Big growth. Big number. Big picture. Big story. And all of that came alive in the campaign. We didn’t have to get creative for creative’s sake. The number was dramatic by itself. We just had to make sure the number come through bold. With a small witty statistic to add in some wit, and with a hidden image inside the big 95 per cent that hinted and revealed a hidden consumer story. The execution too worked to make it topical for different magazine genres.”

Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) is the national magazine association in India and is affiliated to the global industry association, International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP). AIM members include all the top magazine publishers of the country.