This innovation was carried out for Dheepam oil, which is used for lighting lamps. The Dheepam brand is owned by Kaleesuwari Refineries, manufacturers of Gold Winner edible oil, Cardia Life corn oil and Cardia olive oil. The printing process was carried out at the TOI press in Chennai. The group had a teaser ad carried on the previous day to create excitement and announce the innovation.

"The challenge was to provide a sensory connect with our readers and induce trials of Dheepam oil among our readers. A fragrant newspaper was the logical answer to Dheepam's communications requirement. They were able to sample their fragrance with 2.75 lakh readers of TOI in Chennai. This innovative exercise was intended to emotionally connect with our readers on New Year's day. The fragrance was reproduced on a power jacket, wishing our readers a very happy New Year. While the power jacket was carried all over Tamil Nadu, the fragrance innovation was restricted only to copies in the city of Chennai," said Ninan Thariyan, Associate Vice-President, Times Response, Chennai.

One of Times Group's publications, Maharastra Times in Mumbai, had carried a series of fragrance issues some time ago and the group had already developed the technology for the innovation. "However, this was the first time a fragrance newspaper was brought out with a customised fragrance in the country, as far as I know. Fragrance on a newspaper as an idea has a lot of potential. It is an innovative way of sampling for products where the aroma is an identity of the brand. It is our constant endeavour to provide customised communication solutions to our advertisers so that their advertisements work harder for them" added Thariyan.

The Times group tried out the innovation with an FMCG product that uses television as the primary medium. It was an attempt to induce trial of print by Dheepam in an innovative way. "It was also an attempt to address some of the constraints of print, the way it is understood in the traditional sense of the medium. The capability of a sensory connect is a new dimension in the print medium," said Thariyan.

Communication solutions are, by and large, co-created efforts in the Times Group.