MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever’s shampoo brand Close Up partnered with Navbharat Times, for the first time to release talking newspaper advertisement.

The ad was released on the occasion of Mother’s Day in NBT’s Delhi and NCR editions.

The media agency working on the project is Mindshare.

Times of India had earlier carried a talking advertisement for Volkswagen in September 2010. The Close Up ad in NBT was not just a talking ad; it also sought to make the newspaper a musical greeting card for moms. The company created a special four-page supplement that would serve as the greeting card with a musical chip playing out the Mother's Day greeting. Sunday's NBT was inserted inside the same.

HUL GM Hair Care Srinandan Sundaram said, "The objective was to create brand salience for the Clinic Plus brand which has been positioned as a shampoo for mothers and daughters. The insight was to use the occasion to express the unspoken love that exists between the two."

Sundaram felt that NBT was a natural choice with its reach coupled with the fact that most of the consumers were Hindi speakers.

Mindshare principal partner Amin Lakhani said, "Mindshare Fulcrum finds innovative ways to connect with consumers especially in leveraging the print medium to the fullest. We seek to engage the consumer through 360 degree initiatives. With Times we have done fragrance newspaper for Bru Coffee in TOI, Kisanpur in Bombay Times and now the talking musical greeting card for NBT Delhi and the NCR editions."

The exercise was for 600,000 copies for which the planning started almost two months in advance.

BCCL president Arunabh Das Sharma added, "We are very happy to partner our leading language brand with the leading hair care brand to create a path-breaking innovation. Such advertising that appeals not just to the cognitive but also the emotional senses works wonderfully."