(16 February 2008 2:00 pm)

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster BBC has launched an online ad campaign, Election 2008, on bbcurdu.com to raise awareness of the website in Pakistan, USA, Canada, the UAE and the UK.

Aimed at Urdu-speaking international news seekers, wherever they are, it is timed to coincide with Pakistan's parliamentary elections, and is carried by a range of websites including the online edition of the country's daily newspaper, Jang, as well as Geo and MSN Messenger.

bbcurdu.com is an international hub for news, multimedia content and debate for Urdu-speakers across the world. During the Pakistan elections, headlines from the dedicated bbcurdu.com microsite, Election 2008, are being fed into the ads via RSS. They showcase the BBC Urdu content to potential users and encourage them to click through directly to the news stories on bbcurdu.com.

BBC Urdu head Mohammed Hanif said, "Previous digital campaigns promoting bbcurdu.com generated record-breaking levels of traffic from Pakistan. Now we are looking to build on this success amongst Urdu-speaking diasporas in the US, Canada, the UAE and the UK, appealing to our potential users with direct – and passionate – statements."

Its interactive offer includes debates, forums, blogs and votes. bbcurdu.com is the largest Urdu news site in the world, receiving around 35 million page impressions a month.