Sakal Pune turns black and white for a day

The Marathi daily turns all colour in Pune from today and to announce this change, it came out with a black and white edition for a day.

At a time when every other newspaper is becoming all colour, the Pune edition of Sakal turned black and white for a day on January 4. The Marathi daily has become all-colour starting today, January 5, and to announce this change, it came out entirely in black and white for a day.

With creating 'disruption' as its main agenda, the complete Pune edition of Sakal, including all the supplements, advertisements and content, was in black and white. The transition to all colour was highlighted in the daily through a sky bus in the main issue, which requested the readers to preserve the black and white copy as a memorabilia of Sakal Pune.

Indranil Datta, marketing head, Sakal Media Group, says, "Turning all colour is not a new concept and we thought that if we wanted to create a larger than life impact on our readers, we have to do it differently. We tried to make this a historical moment. The innovation was well accepted by the thought leaders of the city."

The occasion of Sakal Pune becoming all colour was backed by a campaign that included outdoor, print and radio presence. The daily also carried out a three-day teaser campaign (in outdoor and print), with the message focussing on the impact of colour in our lives. The revealer campaign was launched today. The group took 60 hoardings across the city to promote the campaign.

The marketing surrounding the transition will go on for a month and a series of activities will be carried out to create an experience for the readers of Sakal in the city.

In an official communiqué, LS Krishnan, business head, Sakal Media Group, says, "We will take new initiatives in the days to come to keep the momentum going, and to ensure that both our readers as well as advertisers derive value from our high editorial standards."

The campaign was created by Setu Advertising, a local advertising agency.

About why the group decided to go all colour in Pune, Krishnan says, "The competition is rising here and to keep pace with the changing times, we decided to go for an all coloured edition in Pune."

This transition will be followed by more changes in the content of the daily and the youth will be high on its scheme. The daily will soon introduce more supplements and rope in celebrity writers to write columns for the newspaper.