Tata Indicom changes its advertising focus from customer-acquisition to an emotional one.
Every once in a while, advertisers scratch their heads to come up with something radically different. Life’s tough when you are a multi-service provider of mobile telephony, broadband Internet, landlines and wireless phones. What do you do? If you are Tata Indicom, you rope in a bunch of real celebrities — Karan Johar, Lalit Modi, Himesh Reshammiya and Prachi Desai — to tell the world to listen to their heart.
A series of four ads broke on national television on October 9. The common thread between the ads is the tagline: “Suno dil ki awaaz”. Created by Percept Picture Company, the ads are the agency’s first big campaign for Tata Indicom. The telecom service provider’s last ad released in August this year and was more focused on selling its CDMA network through the story of a small-town girl who aspires to be an athlete.
The company’s account has changed hands a few times in the past few years, and with that so has its brand positioning. First, McCann Erickson won the account and created the slugline: “Do more, live more”. That was followed by the “Switch to Tata Indicom and experience the difference” ads with DraftFCB Ulka. Currently, the account is with Contract Advertising who has partnered with Percept for the campaign.
Work on the latest campaigns began nearly three months ago when Percept had gone to the telephony operator with a host of ideas. “This campaign was born out of a conversation between Percept CEO Vinita Bangard and myself,” says Abdul Khan, head of marketing, Tata Indicom. “We realised that young emerging India has low attention span and one needs to keep doing different things to get its attention.”
The brief to Percept’s team was to the point: reach out to audiences across different streams. “Nothing rocks this nation like music, cricket and Bollywood,” chimes Bangard. Thus, the decision to use celebrities from such different fields was a no-brainer.
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The latest campaign is part of a larger initiative that’s still underway. “The plan is to extend the current series with a much bigger ‘follow your heart’ campaign. We’re still in the process of working out the logistics,” adds Bangard.
But what prompted Tata Indicom to go with a rather emotional approach in its communication versus one focused on customer acquisition?
“We’ve got 29 million customers. Besides, telecom operators these days end up talking to each other much like the cola ad wars. In a market with 10-12 players, if one can get a strong emotional quotient layered with intelligence, we have a game,” says a triumphant Khan.
Quite apt then is the Lalit Modi monologue shot in his sprawling office: “Starting the IPL was my dream. But everyone said, it was an impossible one. The odds were always against me, and the only thing that kept me going, was a voice deep down in my heart....” The other three ads are similar monologues in Hindi.
Curiously, though, when brands like Nokia, Sony Ericcson and Samsung are using superstars like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan, Tata Indicom has kept its choice low key.
“While everyone uses well known celebrities, we wanted to use ordinary people who had a dream and succeeded against all odds in their respective fields. Take Modi, for instance, his dream was to create the IPL. Everyone said it won’t work but he revolutionised the format. Himesh Reshammiya, too, struggled for 14 years before making it big, while Prachi Desai has nicely crossed over from television to films. These people cut across the target audience,” explains Bangard. Agrees Khan: “This is really an eclectic set of people from different backgrounds who can talk to young India.”
Equally important is the regional approach the telecom operator intends to take. As a result, relevant celebrities will be used in regional campaigns, which are likely to be rolled out in the coming months.
Does the new campaign mean Tata Indicom’s saying a formal goodbye to brand ambassadors and film stars Kajol and Ajay Devgan, who did a series of campaigns for the brand? “No,” says Khan, “They are still our brand ambassadors. Mind you, the celebrities in the current series are not brand endorsers. The entire series shot with them is merely based on inspiring young Indians. At this stage, though, we will not be using Kajol.”
Percept has opted for a 360-degree campaign that will include on-air promotions like the inspiration initiative and reality shows as well as digital advertising. “We won’t be able to reveal more on this as it’s yet to be unveiled,” says Khan.
The ads have been shot by Rakesh Sharma and produced by Percept Picture Company. While the Lalit Modi version was shot in his office, the other three were filmed in studios. The campaign will run for about five weeks. Once the first round is completed, the ads will be evaluated. They will then be repeated for another three months after which the next phase is expected to take off.