So, I missed the zoo-zoos but almost all blogs covered it, I missed the IPL- big shit, I missed the branding of the political parties- crap- ultimately POP rules the game for them.
On a lazy Sunday morning, I get up! What better a breakfast than a slice of toast and Amul butter!!! Umm yea, I once was a calorie freak but if I can booze, damn the health alarm...
Swapping TV channels and eating the toast like I did when I was in Grade 1, I suddenly get an alarm in my head...Walk and Talk!!! Huh whats that! One more social streamer from Idea Cellular. This time Abhishek Bacchan plays the Secretary turned-Sarpanch turned-Principal turned-doc...and he gives gyan on staying fit while you talk on the phone!! Click here to see the 1 and half minute stunner by Lowe.
Although theres nothing unusual about the commercial considering IDEA’s history of social awareness campaigns it just the execution that makes it stand out from the earlier ones. Generally when social awareness comes in our mind, its the rural scene where a village girl gets educated or the clichéd communal harmony or exposure of sarkari babus..This time the brand has generated a social awareness campaign for the urban populous.
What makes it more interesting is that maybe its the first time some product which is totally unrelated to health has positioned itself on health platform! That is what Dashboard salutes and calls ‘Breakthrough Positioning’ wow- I feel like defining a new theory- Breakthrough Positioning is “Positioning your brand on a platform which is totally unrelated to your product attributes.” What this does to your brand- it leverages your brand to a level where your competitors can never have an answer to- simply coz it doesn't have anything to do with your ofering. Consider this- what can a Vodafone talk now (with or without zoo-zoos) about the health platform? Infact the best part of IDEA Cellular’s campaigns are that they are always generic in nature- they never talk explicitely about the brand. Textbooks might say venturing into such an act is a crime if you are not the market leader (Ref to case of Pepsodent failure) but then...what the hell – today’s new age of brand mantra is not restricted to any text book.
Let us spare a minute to see if actually the breakthrough campaigns done by Idea have actually worked in terms of sales and market share. Scanning through IDEA reports I found that IDEA had a subscriber base of 100 mn in late 2006. Early 2007 saw Abhishek Bacchan as the brand ambassador and the results of the social awareness campaign show that the base has just increased (currently 315 mn) exponentially. This means the campaigns have been effective. For telecom, the market is still dominant with the prepaid segment, which means along with campaigns - regular and effective revision of the offering boosts the subscriber base. There is a very low brand loyalty in this micro segment.
Are we done yet...neah how can any campaign be complete unless our critics bhais are heard. They haven’t disappointed us yet another time saying this might encourage people to use the cell phones when one shouldn’t. On a lighter note, click here for a spoof by some dude criticizing the idea of Waaak-ing and Taaaak-ing together because you waaaant be able to kaaancentrate on either of thaaaam. Yea right bro, maybe you need to get a life soon!!!Cheers!
