Vodafones Advertising Strategies: Hutch to Vodafone

Advertising is probably one of the most frequently used vehicles for Rebranding, as it is fairly easy, flexible and quick to change. It is a powerful way of reaching a broad or targeted audience quickly and is effective at signalling a change in positioning, however real or broad that may be. There are many examples of where advertising has either repositioned or strengthened brands, other good examples of where advertising has built a new position for a brand or built a strong emotional link with the public are where companies have created a sort of soap opera out of their advertising. The Advertising agency of Hutch and now Vodafone, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), had a two-fold task to achieve: announce the entry of Vodafone into India and highlight the metamorphosis of Hutch into Vodafone. O&M realised that they had a fantastic property in the Hutch pug, which they had been using for about five years. Therefore, to show the transition from Hutch to Vodafone, O&M launched a rather direct, thematic ad showing the trademark pug in a garden, moving out of a pink coloured kennel which symbolised Hutch making his way into a red one that is the Vodafone colour. A more energetic, chirpier version of the You and I tune associated with Hutch was played towards the end, and it concludes with Change is good. Hutch is now Vodafone. O&M has also rolled out four Commercials featuring Hutchs animated boy and girl, introducing the new brands logo to consumers. The four creatives which were of five seconds each included the duo peeping over a wall to see the logo; parasailing with the logo flying high behind them; releasing a rocket bomb wherein the explosion reveals the logo; and lastly, drawing curtains aside to show the logo. Four other ads with the pug did the rounds of telly screens. These five and 10 second spots cast the dog in situations where he, literally, saw red, using the colour as a visual mnemonic to remember the brand by. The pug was shown in a red basket, popping up from a red cart, drying himself on a red mat, and hiding in a red blanket. Each of these made use of the Hutch is now Vodafone tagline. The print ads, in all major languages in several leading dailies, were kept unbelievably simple: a still shot of the pug inside a red kennel. The same creative

was used in outdoor hoardings as well, in all the 16 circles in which Vodafone now operates. It wasnt easy integrating Vodafone with Hutch; the latter, as is known, is a subtle, understated brand, while globally, Vodafone represents high energy, dynamism and young vitality all represented by its bright red speech mark logo. And so they put in elements such as a more energetic tune and feel to the ads. A few advertisements include:

Hutch is now Vodafone: If you watch any of the star channels or tuned into 20-20 world cup, you would have seen this ad. On 11 February 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Cheung Kong Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion and now had to rebrand itself so it has decided to run a new ad series which piggy banked on Hutchs dog mascot and the theme Change is Good. This required nearly 250 crores of spending by Vodafone but they have successfully painted the town red. An interesting part of this campaign was on the opening day roadblock where they made a deal with Star India so that besides them no other commercials were aired (apart from in-channel promos) on the Star Indias channels for 24 hours. Vodafone Valentine Day Special Ads: Vodafone had released a simple and sweet ad for musical greetings targeted at couples during the valentine week the feature of this campaign is its simplicity and believability and is quite well received. It uses the positioning Make the most of now enjoy the video Vodafone Chota Credit Ink Ad: This new ad had come as refreshing change and more so that this ad takes a very refreshing look at school and at fountain pens. This ad creates a wonderfully subtle message which really puts the point of chota (small) credit across.

The second season of the Indian Premier League would be primarily remembered for two events that were off the field:

The first one involving Indian crickets controversy boy, Sourav Ganguly and his tryst with the concept of multiple-captaincy floated around by the erstwhile coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders, John Buchanan. The other one would be the Zoozoos for Vodafone the eggshell like characters telling a new valueadded service (VAS) story each time.

Vodafone was welcomed in India in 2007 with the Hutch is now Vodafone campaign and the advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), had a two-fold task on their hands: promulgate the entry of Vodafone in India and propagate the metamorphosis of Hutch into Vodafone. The Hutch pug, which O&M had been using for about five years, would have been too costly a proposition to be junked. Having survived the $19-billion buyout, it was consequently used in putting forth the propaganda:Change is good. Hutch is now Vodafone. One of the frequently used avenues for rebranding is advertisement, as it is fairly easy and flexible. It is a powerful mechanism for signaling a change in positioning of the company or reaching out to a broad or targeted audience promptly. Time for Make the Most of Now The next few months saw campaigns coming out from the Vodafone stable such as Happy to Help, Friend circle, Cheaper SMS, Amar Chitra Katha Alerts, but it was also at this juncture that the telecom industry woke up to the potential of Value Added Services (VAS) and Vodafone realized that the burden of VAS would be too much for the pug! It was an opportunity for tapping the lucrative Indian mobile VAS industry valued at more than Rs. 70,000 million.

Figure 1: VAS - A potential Star for Vodafone Cometh the hour, cometh the ZooZoos and what better occasion to launch the advertisement campaign than during the IPL in a cricket-crazy nation?Characters donning white (with black dots for eyes and mouth), having heads that resemble eggs and bodies that were disproportionately thin, were to tell the VAS stories in a world that is similar to and yet different, from human beings. The characterization of these creatures was such that they were to lead simple lives, speak a language sounding gibberish, move in a particular way, and even emote like humans.Creation of the advertisements required low cost costumes, real people and speedy schedules. As a result, the 25 odd advertisements cost only about Rs. 30 million. Each creation has a:

F => Form - This determines the kind of piece and its looks A => Audience - To whom the piece is being addressed T => Topic- The attributes and qualities of the product or service P => Purpose- The objective of the accomplishment of the piece

FAT-P Organizer for Vodafone F = Form Semi-alien semi-human characters living and interacting in an earthlike place A = Audience Customers,primarily in urban India, who would use VAS services T = Topic The importance of VAS in daily needs of cellphone users P = Purpose Entertain and persuade existing and potential subscribers about the use of VAS

Assessing the reach of advertisements and performance of the advertisements The AIDA model provides a detailed illustration on how advertising affects consumer behavior and the purchase decisions. It is an acronym, comprising of the factors -Attention, Interest, Desire and Action, all of them relevant to the relationship between consumer behavior and advertising.

Figure 2: The AIDA Model A research was carried out by Synovate India for Mint business newspaper (May 2010) to assess the proven recall of adverts and also to diagnose performance on key rational and emotional parameters such as:

Brand Reach Likeability Credibility

This yielded the following results with Vodafone advertisements occupying nine out of the top ten position.

Source: www.livemint.com Figure 3: Top 10 Advertisements in the Synovate India Survey for Mint, May 2010 Zoozoos storm the advertisement world The ZooZoo advertisements were indeed clutter-breaking and they reinforced the following:

Low cost advertisements can make good impact Concept and content are most important Expensive brand ambassadors are not a necessity The advertisements should relate to the common man

The message conveyed should be kept simple A well-crafted campaign can be accentuated through massive viral marketing

The success of the campaign could be gauged from the fact that:

ZooZoos were dominating social networking sites such as Facebook Wallpapers, emoticons, ringtones, videos, contests, pictures, stories were being downloaded frequently Videos had approximately 3 million hits within the first 3 weeks Huge number of downloads on Youtube Winner of PETA, Indias first Glitter Box awards

What about the company? As highlighted in Figure 4, the campaign had no impact on the data revenue and a negative impact on other services revenue on a Quarter-on-Quarter basis. However on a Year-on-Year basis (Figure 5), there was an increase in 30.30% in data revenue and 205.26% in other services revenue, which was quite remarkable feat in a fiercely competitive environment.

Source: www.medianama.com Figure 4: Vodafone India Quarterly Data and Messaging Revenue

Source: www.medianama.com Figure 5: Vodafone India Quarterly Revenue Snapshot The ZooZoo campaign had considerable impact on the financials of the company when compared to its competitors during a period which saw a slump in sales revenue in the industry. This was due to price-wars among the existing players and the entry of new competitors in the fray. At end of Q1, FY10 (Figure 6):

Vodafone India added 7.68 million more subscribers Its customer base increased by 3.8% It reported an increase of 23% in revenue at constant exchange rates

Source: www.medianama.com

Figure 6: Vodafone India Quarterly Data Success has its own adversaries Vodafone decided to play it safe in the subsequent years by leveraging on its hugely successful ZooZoo campaigns. These could not evoke the same excitement from the average Indian viewer because of the been there, seen all effect. For example, the commercial with the tagline Save Trees shows the ZooZoo relaxing in a hammock.When one of the supporting trees is felled, it also falls down. This advertisement, spreading the message of saving paper and opting for e-bills lacks the innocence and the subtle humor inherent in the earlier commercials. It is easy to copy a concept and its attributes, but almost impossible to replicate the value, which provides the emotional wallop. This is where Vodafone dithered in creating an emotional connect with the audience for the subsequent ZooZoo commercials. The way ahead It was not too late when the makers realized where they had gone wrong and this was evident in the ZooZoo 3G commercials on air. The impish charm was back again, much to the delight of the viewers, but now Vodafone has to take a call on how much to stretch the ZooZoo franchisee without losing its charm and appeal among the audience. As long as it caters to the area of VAS, it can incrementally add the ZooZoo commercials on a selective basis, but for other services, it has to look for newer pastures! This article has been authored by Arnab Moitra from IMI Delhi.

ZooZoo is a semi alien semi-human character living in an earth-like place ( lot of which is left to the viewer's imagination).These are very very simpe biengs who are very expressive. They laugh aloud , cry loud and have a child like simplicity around them. I think many of us wanted to be such an expressive being which makes ZooZoo very personal .

SD UK Fixed 6.4 5.499 4.499 3.999 ISD UK Mobile 10 8.999 8.499 7.499