BBC Hindi has launched its Voice of the People roadshow which will take
programme makers directly to listeners in the central Indian states
of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
Designed to further raise awareness of BBC Hindi's relevance to the
listeners in India's heartland and to personally engage with them, meetings
with audiences and discussions will be featured in BBC Hindi's popular
morning and evening programmes.
And for the first time the BBC has commissioned an Indian Gond folk
artist to convey the campaign messages.
The initiative is a continuation of last year's massive roadshow when
the BBC covered 6,000 kilometres in eight weeks touring eastern Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar, meeting a total of 140,000 people in 40 live forums
and 160 publicity events.
Controller of BBC World Service Marketing, Communications and Audiences
(WS MC&A) Alan Booth says: "The success of last year's campaign
inspired us to take the roadshow further into India's heartland markets
- Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
"We are chiefly targeting young people with aspirations, those
who are curious about the world and who want the world to be aware of
their views. That's what the whole Voice of the People roadshow is about."
The roadshow is also about celebrating BBC Hindi audiences, and the
BBC has turned to a tribal art form rich in symbolism to help promote
the campaign among rural audiences.
Bhopal based Gond artist Bhajju Shyam has designed the Voice of the
People logo - a bird carrying a team of BBC journalists.
He says he is thrilled that images created by him will represent BBC
Hindi: "Gond paintings are said to watch over people in everything
they do, and we believe that good fortune befalls those whose eyes meet
a good image.
"I believe that the BBC Hindi Bird, flying its team to people's
minds and hearts, will bring good fortune."
BBC WS MC&A used the London based m9global limited to develop and
design the creative.
The Mumbai based specialist Indian outreach agency, Linterland Rural
Initiatives (part of the Lintas Group), managed the development and
implementation of the roadshow.
Notes to Editors
BBC World Service broadcasts programmes around the world in 43 languages
and is available on radio and online.
It has a global audience of 146 million listeners.
BBC World Service is available globally on short wave; on FM in 140
capital cities; and selected programmes are carried on around 2,000
FM and MW radio stations around the world.
The BBC World Service websites receive around 280 million page impressions
every month.
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