OF QUESTIONS, ANSWERS & CURIOSITY

If a question mark is said to be the universal symbol of inquisitiveness, then for a hundred years says the ABP Group they have never shied away from being curious. ABP says, relentlessly asking the questions, for a century now, have not only got them their unfair share of critics, cynics, and naysayers but their fair share of readers and viewers as well, in their millions.

ABP began its journey of asking questions, on a March evening in the Calcutta of 1922 when the first 4-page edition of the Anandabazar Patrika hit the streets. The paper that sold at 2 paisa a copy, with an initial circulation of a mere thousand, has grown to be a media giant that today boasts of eight renowned publications; six TV news channels; digital news and current affairs platforms in eight languages; mobile internet and social media platforms; a radio station; a leading book publishing business; an education business and a film and OTT platform.

In May 2022, the ABP Group launched a campaign to celebrate its 100 years of building and maintaining a reputation that has made the name a force to contend with in the Indian media space. As part of the campaign, it unveiled a centenary logo and a film which are both themed around, what the ABP describes as, the foundational ideas of the brand and its core beliefs that have stood the test of time.

The film for instance, directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia, is presented as a cinematic parable, seen through the eyes of a child who sets off on a fearless quest in search of an unheard-of place. The film depicts the story of travel across India that spans geographies, cultures, roots, and traditions. The film is said to summarise the entire voyage of the ABP brand and ends on a reminder that curiosity is itself both a journey as well the destination. The CEO of ABP Pvt Ltd, Dhruba Mukherjee, when asked about the group’s core belief said: “While many forces illuminate ABP’s influence, an unflinching sense of curiosity permeates all the rest. As a result, more than being the sixth sense, this is probably the first for us – an inquisitive gene that drives the primal human need to know more.”

The centenary logo of the ABP Group is also built around the interpretation of the concept that ‘Curiosity makes everything interesting’. Veteran AD personality Agnello Dias who designed the logo, as well as the campaign, explained the concept saying, “The whole campaign around the brand logo captures the most succinct depiction of what the brand stands for as the human face of all questions.” The most striking visual element of ABP Group’s centenary logo must be its question mark motif, etched as a human face in reverse. Its creators say that it is a face that keeps changing with depictions which is why they have used reverse or negative space, to capture the essence of human progress measured by the degrees of curiosity. Curiosity and the need for asking questions drives content clarified Avinash Pandey, CEO of ABP Network, when he said: “A 100 years of curiosity is what built the ABP Group and through the course of that century we have always aspired to help shape thinking through insightful and credible content.

The brand articulation for the group’s centenary year gets reflected in a three-word sentence – Curiosity questions answers. The rationality behind the articulation, apparently stemming from the principle that at ABP the question has never faltered at the sight of a full stop. No wonder then that CEO of ABP Dhruba Mukherjee says, “We wanted a holding thought that captured our brand essence across regions, across media and across the years. Something that we always had but never actually expressed.” The CEO of ABP Network, Avinash Pandey adds, “We also wanted a human thought that resonated with our viewers, readers, internal staff as well as every human being. We wanted the brand to own a human thought rather than a transactional one.”

Curiosity may kill cats but if you are human, you have nothing to worry about because asking questions defines the species and makes one conscious of the insatiable need for seeking answers. A question that always starts inside the individual mind can never really be stopped from travelling out into the world looking for its answers. As an ABP centenary campaign poster says – A question is what turns the page in a book; It is what makes a child dismantle a toy; It is what gets a law repealed. The entire ABP centenary campaign in essence comes as an enunciation of the brand’s raison d'être, stemming from having bridged the gap between inherent human curiosity, its resulting questions and the continuous seeking of answers.