Zoozoos - Images

Vodafone’s ZooZoos, stars of IPL ad breaks

Wooing audience… the Vodafone way:

New Delhi, April 30

It is not for nothing that Indian advertising is seen as coming into its own. And Vodafone advertising campaigns have been at the forefront of it all.

First there was that dog in Hutch campaigns, which captured the imagination of millions. It survived a $19-billion buyout and reached such levels of popularity that it even led to kidnappings of that breed of dogs, called pugs.

And now come those nutty and entirely endearing little men in white, called Zoozoos created by the agency O&M for Vodafone, one of the main broadcast sponsors of the Indian Premier League. They are wowing audiences, and ZooZoo merchandise, bags, keychains, T-shirts will be available soon.

Fans on Facebook are rising by the day. “Day before it was 8,000, yesterday I am told there were 14,000 fans,” says Mr Harit Nagpal, Marketing & New Business Director, Vodafone Essar. It crossed 28,000 on Thursday.

Going the whole way:

“When you are spending four months’ advertising spend over one month you might as well make the most of the high, non-repetitive viewership,” says Mr Nagpal. Instead of the traditional repeated ads, Vodafone decided to launch a new film everyday during the league. “There were two barriers to that, one was continuity, the other the cost of producing so many films,” says Mr Nagpal.

In about 10 days, O&M completed the campaign shooting two-three films a day, each selling a product or a service offered by Vodafone. A dozen more films are expected as the league progresses.

The characters, which look like distant cousins of the Pillsbury dough boy, were enacted by professional ballet artists in white body suits. “What makes them so endearing is that they are innocent people living in a simple world unlike ours, who laugh loud when they laugh. And who seem to be in an in-between world of animation and reality,” said Mr Rajiv Rao, Executive Creative Director, O&M.

The strategy is generating a buzz that lives up to the brand’s image of great creatives and clever marketing. The company spends about Rs 250 crore on advertising across mediums according to industry sources.

“In the first ten days IPL has, despite a few matches being washed out by the rains, reached a cumulative 89 million people, higher than the 70 million last year,” says Mr Nagpal. He would not comment on the role of the ZooZoos after the IPL.

Vodafone has hit Indian TV screens with its extremely creative line of ‘ZOOZOO’ ads.

As many as 30+ ads will premiere during the IPL matches. The ads are sharp, small and deliver the message of Vodafone’s network services effectively.

Not to be left behind Airtel is countering this approach through celebrity power. It’s got a couple of bollywood actors acting in ads that advertise Airtel’s network services.

For the moment though it’s Vodafone that’s winning the battle at least on TV that is. The net result of the ads turning into sales is what will decide the winner of this battle.

The fact has however emerged that the battle lines have been drawn. No longer will Airtel go unchallenged.

HUTCH

Vodafone, ever since it entered the Indian market through its purchase of Hutch in India has posed a threat to Airtel but it’s taken a while to get off the ground. Of course it’s helped them that Hutch had a pretty good user base as well.

Now the fight has intensified onto the network services market. Both Airtel and Vodafone have been trying to get people to use their network for everything from cricket commentary to horoscope alerts. Morning prayer songs to dating advice is now available but at a monthly rental fee which is how both companies plan to make money.

The intensity shown by both companies has been off the charts. Clearly both realize that it’s a great opportunity for them.

Vodafone vs Airtel:The Gloves Are Off

The war for the very huge Indian telecom sector has just heated up. In fact it’s now moving into the next phase. The battle to enter the market and build a loyal customer base thus generating revenue through sales is no longer the sole business model.The two big giants in the Indian telecom industry namely Airtel and Vodafone have established themselves for a pretty long while. It is now time to consolidate their position and increase their sales figures. No longer is the battle simply restricted to providing a telecom service on a cheap and affordable handset. It’s now about making money through network services.

For companies like Idea Cellular, Tata Indicom and Aircel it’s still about generating revenues by simply getting people to use their respective connections. In other words they’re trying to make money by getting people to sign up for their prepaid or postpaid plans.

But for the big dogs of the telecom space-- Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL who already have an established customer base ,it’s about entering areas in the country that have poor telecom access like the rural areas. They definitely have the funds.

But more importantly while the latter is a gradual process the immediate goal is to make money by providing extra services on their network. That way there’s a chance of generating more revenue in addition to the prepaid and postpaid tariffs they anyway rely on to make money.

This is the area both Airtel and Vodafone are relying on. More importantly it’s probably for the first time in the Indian mobile services market that a company has definitively emerged as the major rival to Airtel.

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