VODAFONE BRAND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

The 'Zoozoos' Campaign

Vodafone entered India in December 2005 Successfully rebranded 'Hutch' as 'Vodafone‘ in

2007. Rebranding included…

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

BackgroundBackgroundBackgroundBackground

‘Pink is now red as Hutch is Vodafone in India from September 21, 2007, officially announced in Mumbai.

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

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.

Zoozoos…Zoozoos…

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

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: Ads could get lost in major marketing war

during IPL

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

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

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

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’

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