Vodafone - Creativity unleashed

Being no cricket fan, I feel IPL is a waste of time. But being a marketeer I also feel its a great platform for marketing brands. Airtel ads have always been my favourite, but this time during IPL matches its Vodafone IPL alerts which have been the centre of attention!

Maybe its bye bye pug for Vodafone as they are now experimenting with new campaigns . Their latest VAS campaigns called IPL Alerts use ZooZoo characters. These ZooZoo characters scream, laugh, have really cute voices and so expressive. They have managed to cut across age groups and break the clutter. These Vodafone ads are reportedly the most watched ads on IPL.
(Source - http://www.afaqs.com/perl/media/story.html?sid=23868)
These ads have certainly matched upto the cuteness of the pug.
Watch my favourite ad here




What I liked about Vodafone or O&M ( O&M has been the creative agency for Vodafone) is that they have managed to develop a signature style , most of their ads can be easily linked to the brand. Also the hero in their campaigns is usually not the product. Initially it was the pug, then came Irfan Khan and now the Zoozoo characters.
Vodafone has also proved that you dont always need a high profile SRK, Big B to endorse your brand. A spikey or chika could also do :) ( Spikey and Chika are names of the pugs used). Vodafone was also the first one to use Irfan Khan as ambassador when the other brands were fighting for Big B or SRK's time. Frankly I think all the other brands managed to add to SRK and Big B's equity with their commercials and not vice versa.

One major trouble that brands fall into in cases where the hero of the commercial is other than the product and the product itself plays a subdued part of the film, is that there is a danger of the hero becoming bigger than the brand itself. Let me explain . If we were to believe urban legend , then Coke created Santa Claus and then Santa become an independent entity, bigger than Coke itself and Coke had to abandon it. In case of Vodafone or Hutch , the erstwhile pug became very strongly associated with it. In fact the sales of pugs started increasing like never before. Nobody thought Hutch or Vodafone or whatever it is, could ever do without the pug. The brand did not matter only the pug did. But Vodafone successfully and very subliminally removed the pug from its campaigns. Initially Vodafone launched the pug and the girl campaigns and the "Pug representing the Customer Care" campaign. Experts and Ad pundits were convinced that the pug was here to stay. But Vodafone proved them wrong when they launched a series of campaigns without the pug and these campaigns again touched the consumers heart.
The ads brought out stories from each our school days childhood etc.
Vodafone has ensured that while its ads are endearing and has a strong message to convey through symbols or memories, the product itself is bigger than any of its ambassadors.

See the fountain pen chota credit ad here.




One more commendable thing about this service provider is the seamless integration through its journey of brands. Originally Maxtouch which became Orange, then Hutch and now Vodafone.
Each of the providers have managed to achieve a crossover between brand awareness, service offerings and commercials through a good execution style. With Orange , the company painted many a towns orange, Hutch coloured them pink and Vodafone washed them with its red colour. When I first saw the logo of Vodafone , I thought consumers are likely to confuse it with Airtel , but Vodafone has strived and managed its brand equity and logo very well and has managed to create a seperate identity for itself.


For now I 'm waiting to watch the next Vodafone Zoozoo commercial.