A new bridge was the focus is a successful multiplatform campaign for Dhaka, Bangladesh-based daily Prothom Alo.

Editor Matiur Rahman says an integrated newsroom was despatched for online and print journalism from the same platform, with the publisher also seeing great advertising opportunities from the project. “Advertisement revenues are getting tough to earn day by day,” he says in an INMA blog post. “We created a strategy for advertisers to contextually connect with the audience in commemorating the 100 per cent visibility of the Padma Shetu Bridge once the last slab was added.

“We called it the ‘6.15 kilometres of Hope’ campaign and created content around the Padma Shetu to provide enough value for advertisers that we could charge a 100 per cent premium price for every CI sold under this campaign.”

The riverine country of Bangladesh is in the delta of the Padma and Jamuna rivers in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. “Although the country’s supreme court has given all its rivers legal rights, these rivers were asking to be bridged, to connect people and their lives,” Matiur Rahman says.

“One of such river is Padma – one of the mightiest in the world – yet until now, people from the southwest of Bangladesh had to use boats, launches, or other ferries to connect to people on the other side.”

The 6.15 km Padma Shetu bridge will be an infrastructural milestone for Bangladesh, giving millions of people in South Bengal access to better education, resources, healthcare, and industrial services, and expected to create a better than one per cent increase in the country’s total GDP.

More importantly, the bridge will connect South Bengal with the rest of the country. “Opportunities for the Bangladeshi people will increase, resource allocation will become more efficient, and the country will grow more than ever before. It is no wonder that the construction of the Padma Bridge by the country’s own finance gave Bangladeshi people excitement and more importantly, gave them hope,” he says.

Having adapted to industry changes since its foundation in 1998, the Daily Prothom Alo – “The First Light” ­– has become one of the most versatile publications in South Asia. and has adapted to changes in the industry. It is now the largest media house in Bangladesh, reaching readers in Bangladesh and 200 other countries and territories around the world through print and digital versions. Its social media platform is the biggest in its category in the country and one of the largest Bangla-language media websites in the world.

Content for the campaign was designed with both print and digital advertisers, enabling brands to “get a positive impact on brand value” by tagging themselves with Padma Shetu news on the Prothom Alo newspaper.

A strategy was devised to incorporate all big industry players who were likely to buy the premium ads, and to enable a bigger ad pool for the campaign, sufficient content was also created for mid to small advertisers. “This approach paid off in the end with plenty of great feedback from local advertisers,” says Matiur Rahman.

“Our sales team sold out the entire inventory within a week, acquiring advertisements from Shah Cement Industries, BSRM Steel, Heidelberg Cement, Holcim, KSRM, Natundhara, Nikki Thai Aluminum, Fresh Cement, and many more, most of which are big producers of construction materials.”

Scheduled for December 10-14 last year, the campaign execution allowed Prothom Alo to meet its revenue target, delivering advertisers a reach and engagement of more than 17 million.

“The impact in digital was sensational,” he says. “In a country like Bangladesh, where digital revenue for the news industry is yet largely to be tapped, the campaign bagged more than ten million impressions, plus more than 45,000 Facebook likes and 2,300 shares. “Five videos had 150,000 minutes of viewing time by 300,000 viewers.”

Matiur Rahman says print advertisers “rushed to get published” in the jacket, front pages, inner pages and back page. “The result was tremendous! Total CI sold was 499, which brought a total campaign reach of 6.7 million.

“Considering the print medium in 2020 and 2021, the ‘6.15 kilometers of Hope’ campaign allowed the Prothom Alo business development department to achieve 12 per cent additional revenue.

Bridge photo by Azim Khan Ronnie