Newspapers are expected to chronicle events as they happen. But what if they could go beyond the physical paper to solve a real problem? The Times of India (TOI), India’s largest circulated English daily, decided to not just write about the world’s second most congested city, Bengaluru, but solve its terrible traffic. TOI created Bengaluru’s first user generated map, hosted on a mobile responsive website, where people could directly report traffic issues real-time. The map and the supporting integrated communication campaign resulted in 4,000+ suggestions, of which 105 have been acted on by the authorities till date.

Situation

Once famous as the ‘garden city’, Bengaluru (aka Bangalore) is now notorious for its terrible traffic. It is the baseline against which all other traffic in India is compared.

Infrastructural solutions by the municipal authorities and the state government (flyovers, metro rail) have not kept pace with Bengaluru’s traffic congestion. Many brands have created campaigns around it, comics have written jokes about it, memes and songs abound. But for the world’s second most congested city (Source: TomTom Traffic Index 2022), real change isn’t felt on the ground.

Brief

The Times of India (TOI), India’s largest circulated English daily, had written about Bengaluru’s traffic plenty of times. But this time, just writing was not enough.

The brief was simple:

• Don’t just do a good-looking ad campaign.

• Don’t talk big picture.

• Solve the traffic problem for the people of Bengaluru.

Objective

Real, immediate, measurable impact felt by commuters.

Decoding that there is no big fix or magical solution for the big traffic problem of Bengaluru, TOI kept two criteria in developing its creative idea – one that actually makes a difference.

• Involve the commuters – Do not limit efforts to just the government and municipal bodies. Include those most affected by the campaign – the commuters. Those who face these issues daily should be involved in the solution.

• Go small to solve big – Not every traffic problem needs a flyover or underpass. Multiple local-level fixes, if executed systematically and in large enough numbers, can be very effective in unchoking regular traffic snarls.

The big idea – Unjam Bengaluru

TOI created ‘Unjam Bengaluru’, a campaign that invited citizens to play their part in solving their beloved city’s infamous traffic problem.

Primary target audience – Bengaluru’s commuters

Bengaluru’s commuters, who face the traffic daily were our core target audience.

These meant both:

• Locals, who have been in the city for years, and seen its traffic get worse.

• Migrants, who have never known another way of Bengaluru traffic.

Secondary target audience – Traffic police

Just including the commuters would mean highlighting problems. To solve these, TOI engaged with city’s traffic police.

Approach

TOI used its connection to both readers and authorities to bridge conversations. A micro-level approach was adopted to decongest the city one chokepoint at a time. The strategy was to make small changes that would then snowball into a large impact.

This involved:

1. A commuter flagging an issue.

2. TOI escalating to Bengaluru’s traffic police, while also drawing attention to the issue.

3. TOI following up on a resolution and then flagging the issue as resolved.

The heart of the execution was creating a first-of-its-kind user generated traffic map, hosted on a mobile responsive website, where people could report traffic issues real-time. Once a chokepoint picked up enough +1s, it would be flagged to the city’s traffic police. An integrated communication campaign attracted more citizens to participate.

Print ads – 10 print ads spotlighted issues, invited people to participate, and reported progress.

Videos – A launch film kickstarted conversations and bite-sized vlogs in collaboration with celebrity RJ Rakesh featured entertaining interviews with commuters.

OOH – Hoardings, LEDs at key traffic chokepoints and high footfall locations drew attention.

Print and online editorial coverage – Interviews with concerned citizens, the traffic police commissioner, and in-depth coverage of citizen-spotlighted issues created an earned media narrative.

Online – Conversations with the #unjambengaluru were lent further credibility by TOI hosting a Twitter Space with Dr. MA Saleem, Special Commissioner, Bengaluru Traffic.

The single objective of the campaign was real, immediate, measurable impact felt by commuters.

To that effect, the Unjam Bengaluru campaign has generated over 4,000 suggestions from residents, based on which 105 chokepoints have already been acted upon and resolved by the civic authorities. The best part, 25 of the 105 suggestions were acted on by the authorities before TOI could even report them.

Supplementary results that showcase the success of the campaign include:

• Reach – 18.5M

• Total Engagement – 7 M

• Average CTR – 23.12%

• OOH garnered 100K+ eyeballs daily across metros, malls, and public digital screens

The success was so overwhelming that TOI extended its eight-week campaign to let more suggestions pour in. TOI even published 25 impact stories to highlight these changes, encouraging further inputs.

Bengaluru’s temperate weather and lovely forestation made it a retirement abode. However, India’s burgeoning IT landscape found a base in the “Garden City”, after which there was no looking back. People flocked in from all over, and by 2022, the city and the state of Karnataka together employed 4 million people in the IT industry (Source: The Hindu newspaper).

Unfortunately, the city’s infrastructure never grew with pace. Not only are the small roads not wide enough for heavy traffic, additional construction has also largely been unplanned and is often delayed. Whatever empty areas are left are often occupied by hawkers and vendors. The bad condition of roads and poor traffic management all come together to create the perfect storm for terrible traffic in the city.

But Bengaluru also has an active volunteering culture, where people come together for initiatives. And what better one than to improve Bengaluru’s traffic?