Tata Housing: Painting the town

Tata Housing brought its Wallbook to Delhi, giving participants a chance to paint their dreams for the city on a one-km-long stretch of wall on the university campus.

Tata Housing's annual initiative - The Wallbook - witnessed its Delhi Chapter recently. Held at the Delhi University's North Campus, the event witnessed nearly 500 participants including students, activists, change makers, painters and artists, who participated to design the change they wish to see in Delhi. The Delhi Wallbook was the second chapter in the Wallbook series after it was held in Mumbai last year.

The theme of the event was 'Design the Change' and the participants were given a one-km-long stretch of wall outside Delhi University to paint. Artists participated individually and in groups, and the subject of the paintings was largely dominated by women-centric issues such as women's rights, liberation and safety. Others included a Delhi in need of guardian angels, a futuristic metro and a Capital city rich in history.

Speaking to afaqs! about the objective behind this activity, Rajeeb Dash, marketing head, Tata Housing says that the company has always had an affinity towards art and culture and has symbolised it not only through its projects but also its annual property, Wall Book.

"The 'Wallbook' is an initiative to redecorate the defaced city walls, with theme-based paintings by citizens who inspire change. This provides citizens an opportunity to express themselves as well as project a positive message to the society through art and what they desire their city to look like. The aim of this activity was to bring the residents together and engage them in a movement," Dash adds.

According to Dash, Tata Housing created awareness about Delhi Wallbook through various media platforms such as outdoor, digital and word of mouth. The company received good response from media based in Delhi, which also promoted the event.

Explaining the idea behind selecting 'Design the Change' as the theme of the event, Dash says that the Capital has seen a whole array of powerfully charged social events in the past year that have brought thousands of people together.

"Be it Anna Hazare's protests against corruption, Arvind Kejriwal's accusations against the government, the Nirbhaya rape incident or the Delhi nursery admissions racket, all of these have tried the patience of Delhi's citizens. Tata Housing provided them the canvas to voice their emotions," he says.

Following this activity, Tata Housing claims that its Facebook Page, which was set up in 2011, witnessed over 15,000 new fans for the Wallbook event and increased the overall fan base to 88,000. "Tata Housing was one of the first few developers to have successfully leveraged the online space. We have established our presence across all leading social networks and have engaged in conversations with our customers well. We promoted Delhi Wallbook through regular post updates about the event and created a separate page for it. We also advertised about the event on Facebook," Dash says.

Commenting on Tata Housing's overall marketing plans this year, Dash says that the company will use a mix of traditional media - advertising in print media, outdoor activations and new media - in its marketing activities, with about 20 per cent of its budget going to direct marketing.

The company's approach towards digital will be two-pronged, one being to be present in all these conversations via internet advertising through Google Adwords, banner ads, PPC (pay per click) and PPI (pay per impression) campaigns. And, the second will be to engage with prospects over the long term by using social media and integrating all marketing initiatives with its social media outreach through non-business content aimed at striking a conversation with people.

"Real estate marketing is continuously evolving and increasingly and we are looking at more targeted media to reach out to customers," Dash says, and adds that following the responses garnered from Mumbai and Delhi Wallbook activities, the company hopes to carry this out in other cities as well.