In India, 1/6th of our day goes into reading news, what was found by one of India’s leading national dailies – accounted for 80% of that time being spent on only breaking/top stories. While other stories in the same category that have the potential to equally affect our lives – fell through the cracks and missed our views.

In other words, while all was being reported, not all was known by the intended audience. Which meant that half of the brand's website was going to remain undiscovered by a greater chunk of Indian internet newsreaders.

The objective that The Indian Express then worked towards, was uplifting the way news is consumed in today’s day and age. And to solidify the news house’s 90-yr old stature of online reporting.

Technology and its innovation capabilities help craft a long-term vision building a competitive advantage. Using the same, News Beyond Views enhanced user experience and brand communication giving an apt solution to a common problem.

With only a few news articles making it to the trends and rest getting lost in the cracks, News Beyond Views, was an initiative to give overshadowed news their due presence. By making the discoverability of news accessible on the brand website across devices, The Indian Express made the quality of its journalism an experiential one. Journalism that stands for fair news. And that means, all news.

Using a simple coding hack, there emerged a way to showcase two stories at once to the same reader. Addressing the issue of bias in consuming news, the campaign ensured that no story lurks in the dark. If not the limelight, we can at least give them a highlight.

The campaign was intended to reach individuals aged between 18-55 who had access to the internet and were engaging in reading news articles online, on a daily basis. Along with that, it was intended to also reach the 7-7.5 million readers frequenting The Indian Express website across all mediums, on a daily basis.

Keeping the consumer profile and habits in mind, the devised strategy utilized the popularity of top stories on the platform. Modifying the website code, a lesser-viewed news article was embedded under a breaking news article. This further displayed the idea – that there is an overshadowed story in the same category and we need to read beyond what’s just getting high view counts.

In India, 1/6th of our day goes into reading news, what was found by one of India’s leading national dailies – accounted for 80% of that time being spent on only breaking news. While other stories in the same category that had the potential to equally affect our lives fell through the cracks.

This meant half of the brand's website was going to remain undiscovered by a greater chunk of newsreaders. The objective that The Indian Express worked towards, was uplifting the way news is consumed through a simple tech innovation and solidify the news house’s 90-yr old stature of reporting.

To signal the start of a new experience for those who like to be in the know, the internet was blasted with assets that every average newsreader would encounter. On highlighting the text on interactive banners, the reader was redirected to The Indian Express’ website. Wherein on highlighting any breaking news, every reader was served with an equally relevant but less popular news article. A simple coding hack which uses the blank space and colour of text highlighting and forms a unique communication medium that only gets triggered when selected.

The development and deployment of the code on The Indian Express website took 3-4 days.

Initially serving as an awareness tool to discover overshadowed stories, News Beyond Views also became a brand IP for The Indian Express – making it extendable for advertising under GDN and marketing campaigns by other brands. The idea was promoted on social media and EDM campaign urging users to experience it on the brand website.

Within a few days of going LIVE, the time spent on the website increased by 242.6% and the impressions on the website crossed the mark of 48.2MM and garnered an estimated reach of 54MM across the mediums.

News Beyond Views by The Indian Express proved to be a gamechanger when it came to measuring its impact. Within a few days of going LIVE with the activation, the time spent on the brand website went up by 242.6% along with a 2.7% increase in the number of premium subscribers.

A significant change in the user behaviour was noticed in the EDM campaign when the open rate of e-mailers went up and users landed on stories on our website through the same. The impressions on the website crossed the mark of about 48.2 million. Further, to add to that, the campaign garnered an estimated reach of over 54 million across the mediums.