A musical transition to succeed

Vodafone is now focusing on music as the theme for its latest brand campaign, like the 'Kabhi Kabhi' ad or the Magic Box phone ad.

The dog has gone and so has the kid. It's now over to music. After riding the network plank for a considerable amount of time, first under the Hutch brand, and now Vodafone, the telecom major is now focusing on music as the theme for its latest brand campaign.

Be it the Kabhi Kabhi ad, where it's shown that a child listens to only one song from his infancy and continues to hum it at every occasion till he has a kid. Or the Magic Box phone ad where people gather around a man listening to a radio.

Harit Nagpal, marketing director, Vodafone, feels that the latest campaigns are in tune with what the product requires. "It's not a conscious decision to have music as a theme in our campaigns, it's what the product demands."

For quite a long time, telecom service providers have been talking about the network but influx of the various value-added services have made them talk about other aspects as well.

But Nagpal disagrees. He says out of the 15-18 campaigns of Vodafone, only a couple talked about the network. "Our campaigns have always talked about various products and services."

The brand's communication, feels Nagpal, has always been directed at engaging or endearing the customers. So, the campaign could be about how call charges have slashed or better network coverage "" the idea remains the same.

Overall, Nagpal feels that the brand's communication needs to make a natural progression. "There will always be changes in the way the brand communicates with its audience, and with Vodafone it was even more important," he says.

After its initial shift from Hutch to Vodafone, Nagpal feels that there was a need to bring more vibrancy to the brand. "Vodafone's imagery is more youth-oriented than Hutch and that's what we have attempted in our campaigns."

He also feels that the brand has never focused on one main thing and the communication has always been multi-dimensional. The brand, in between, has also been using actor Irfan Khan, who has been there since Hutch days.

While the brand is using outdoor and on-ground activities extensively, the main focus is on television. The dog-and-the-kid ad had won a lot of accolades for the brand. It remains to be seen whether music-based ads can match the earlier success.