VODAFONE ESSAR'S ADVERTISING STRATEGY

The 'Zoozoos' Campaign

Agenda

Background and Introduction Need identification Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Pricing, Packaging, Price, Distribution,

Advertising Strategy What went wrong, what could have been

done better Current situation Learning

Background

Vodafone entered India in December 2005 Acquired 10 percent stake in Bharti Ventures

Limited (Bharti Airtel) Successfully rebranded 'Hutch' as 'Vodafone‘ Vodafone Essar started expanding its presence

in India Rebranding included

“Change is good...” Baseline - “Hutch is now Vodafone”

Earlier Campaigns : Happy to help, Friend circle, Cheaper SMS, ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ Alerts

Days before Zoozoo

‘Pug’ was the mascot for vodafone Taken over from Hutch IPL 2008 had Vodafone going in Pug for

its ‘Happy to Help’ service

Need identification

Value Added Services of Vodafone needed more promotion

ZooZoo was the perfect way to spread awareness

VAS is considered a cash cow for cellular companies

IPL season 2 had lot of scope to be taken advantage

Introduction

Zoozoos: Advertisement characters promoted by Vodafone during the India Premier League Season 2 (IPL)

Campaign to communicate the VAS offered by the company

The ads were created by Ogilvy & Mather, an agency under Executive Creative Director, Rajiv Rao, South Asia.

Making of Zoozoo

Prakash Verma of Nirvana Films Filmed in South Africa with local crew Movement, Talk, Gestures, Emotions,

Costume designs and artwork 3 weeks pre-production and 2 different

fabrics

Alien (ZooZoo) Design

2 designs were considered Fat potato head Slim Version with bigger face

Egg head version finalised Characterization: Leads simple lives,

emotes like humans Talk Gibberish Simple, Silly, Funny, Adorable Big Frowns, Hearty Laughs, Grins

Costs

Animations 10-15 times costlier than real people

ZooZoos had low cost costumes, real people

Speedy Schedules 30 advertisements cost only Rs 3 Crores 20-30 sec long ZooZoo name nowhere in commercial Massive Viral Marketing

SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS: Campaign penetrated both in the media as

well as in social networking sites Was representation of a common man

depicted as a cartoon character ZOOZOO Wide media coverage, more precisely

through video Easy and cheap animation leading to low

production cost No celebrity endorser - No associated

risks and costs

SWOT Analysis (cont…)

WEAKNESS: Had an undermining effect on the brand

Vodafone

Difficulty in understanding faced by rural population

SWOT Analysis (cont…)

OPPORTUNITIES: Revolution in the conventional way of advertising

that was through public figures and celebrities Low advertising cost leading to provision of

cheaper services IPL Season 2 expected to have good TRP’s

THREATS: A major intimidation to the brand VODAFONE Ads could get lost in major marketing war during IPL

BCG matrix

• SMS and Calling Service • GPRS and Internet Service

• Value Added Service • MMS Service

Market Share

Gro

wth

Rate

Segmentation

ZOOZOO - A cartoon character which represented common man

Segmented basis on types of services used

Urban and Rural region customers were seperated out

Targeting

Targeted customers who would use VAS services

Different kinds of VAS services were offered for different kinds of customers

Urban customers were more in focus

Advertising - TVC

About 30 different TVCs for VAS including - Cricket alerts, beauty alerts, phone backup, Chota Credit, Vodafone Maps, Vodafone call filter, Live games, Musical greetings etc.

20-30 seconds ads with the message about the VAS. And ending with “Make the Most of Now”

Advertising - Internet

Dedicated microsite – “What kind of Zoozoo are you?”

Downloadable Ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and videos

Facebook – aimed at building a community

Themes for advertisement

Magic Box Stock Alerts International Roaming Bhakti Saagar Busy message Dating Tips Voice SMS Fashion Tips Recharge Anywhere Ringtone Facebook Group SMS Call Divert

Background Music Exam Results Beauty Tips Phone Backup IPL commentary Cricket Alerts IPL contests Chotta Credit Maps Live Call Filter Live Games Musical greetings Start of the match

Persuasion Matrix for Zoozoo

Persuasion Matrix helps marketers see how each controllable element of their ad interact with the consumer’s response process

Promotional Planning : Comprehension/Receiver - Television audienceAttention/Source - Zoozoo Presentation/Channel – TV CommercialsYielding/Message - The different ads

What kind of Zoozoo are you?

Pricing and Promotional Offers Offers like providing Cricket Alerts,

Beauty Alerts, Phone Backup, Chota Credit, Maps, Call Filter were provided

All these services were at affordable prices, some around 30 Rs per month

Distribution

These services were started in all circles by Vodafone at one go

Zoozoo campaign was in place with all distributors in super quick time

Viral Marketing

Vodafone was successful in effort of viral marketing

Strategy captured imagination of millions across the country

Every age group was interested in the ad and the related VAS products

Success

ZooZoos dominating social networking sites

Created Strong Association Wallpapers, emoticons, ringtones,

videos, contests, pictures, stories etc Videos had 3million hits in 3 weeks Most watched viral video for 2 weeks Youtube ad downloads Twitter

IPL Impact

85% of most visible brand on screen Hit in both the weeks Most watched brand in breaks Others were Airtel, Lifebuoy, Airtel

Broadband Internet Vodafone – 15% of commercial ads Havells – 8%, Airtel and Idea – 7% each

The telecom battle

Bharti Airtel, Idea are biggest competitors

Airtel launched ‘My Airtel My Offer’ with Madhavan and Vidya Balan

Idea launched ‘Walk when you talk’ with Abhishek Bachan

Current market scenario

ARPU at a very low point

Minimal Call and other services rate

Competition in this sector

Frequency of Zoozoo ads reduced

Zoozoo Merchandise

What could have been done better ?

Zoozoos becoming more popular than the network itself

Messages written in text in the end - difficult to comprehend for viewers from semi urban and rural areas

Avoid hammering different products in short span

Phased release of each storyline to promote different offers

Some Number Crunching

Vodafone reports on at end of Q1 FY10 Vodafone India added 7.68 million

subscribers in the quarter ZooZoo advertisements helped Vodafone

to increase its customer base by 3.8% in Q1

Vodafone reported an increase of 23 percent in revenue at constant exchange rates

Learning's

Low cost ads can make good impact Concept is important Expensive Brand Ambassadors could be

avoided Ads more relate to common man Most Importantly

‘Keep it simple’

THANK YOU