Manja Turns The Economic Times Newspaper Into AI-Themed Advertising Canvas

Independent creative agency Manja has developed a new print-led campaign for The Economic Times’ dedicated artificial intelligence franchise “Eye on AI”, using the newspaper itself as the advertising canvas.

Eye on AI is a weekly page focused on artificial intelligence and its impact across industries, published every Tuesday for the publication’s business readership.

According to the campaign concept, the challenge was not simply launching a recurring editorial property inside a daily newspaper, but ensuring that readers consistently notice and return to the feature each week.

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Print Meets AI:

Instead of relying on conventional house advertisements, subscription messaging or promotional banners, Manja designed a campaign that integrates directly into different sections of the newspaper.

Each page of The Economic Times reportedly carried a handwritten annotation linked to the subject matter of that section.

For example, pages focused on politics carried the line: “Pure Politics is using AI to identify supporters, optimise fundraising and sharpen campaign strategy.”

Similarly, business-focused sections featured lines such as: “Brands and Companies are using AI to turn browsing habits into buying habits.”

The campaign’s central idea was to demonstrate that artificial intelligence is no longer limited to the technology industry and is instead influencing nearly every subject covered by the newspaper.

Rather than communicating that message through a traditional headline-led campaign, the concept visually embedded AI into the reading experience itself.

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Editorial-Style Advertising:

According to the agency, the handwritten visual style was intentionally chosen to resemble a journalist’s notes rather than a conventional marketing advertisement.

The approach created the impression that readers were discovering observations directly within the newspaper instead of encountering a branded promotional insert.

The campaign also introduces an ironic contrast between print media and artificial intelligence.

While print is often discussed as one of the industries most vulnerable to technological disruption and AI-driven transformation, the campaign uses the newspaper medium itself to reinforce the relevance of AI reporting.

Commenting on the idea on LinkedIn, Prajato Guha Thakurta described the campaign as an effort to demonstrate AI’s impact across industries by “finding a new advertising space in a 2000-year-old medium.”

The campaign reflects how publishers and advertisers are increasingly experimenting with integrated storytelling formats that blur the line between editorial environments and promotional communication.

For the advertising industry, the initiative highlights the growing use of contextual creativity and media-native execution to improve audience engagement in traditional print formats.

The campaign also signals how newspapers continue adapting creatively in the AI era by repositioning print not simply as a legacy medium, but as a platform for experiential storytelling and conceptual advertising.