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The web is what we make of it. Vodafone India (Vodafone) made it into an army of helmet-wearing miniature ZooZoos, the popular mascots it had introduced in 2009. The television ads in which they star let you 'see' the Internet.
"We wanted to physically show the Internet," says Anuradha Aggarwal, senior vice-president, brand communications and insights, Vodafone India. The army of tiny ZooZoos in the latest spate of ads, during the IPL, embodies the Internet. After all, Vodafone wants to address subscribers who have never accessed the web on their phones.
The second-largest telecom company in the country has run into a problem with Internet adoption among its 149 million subscribers. Even though consumers increasingly fancy Internet-enabled handheld devices, Internet adoption and, subsequent data usage volume, still remain elusive. The number of people who can use the Internet on mobile is 600 million, but only 150 million access it. Starter packs for the Internet can then target as many as 450 million mobile subscribers across operators.
"Only 30 per cent of those who have data-enabled handsets use the Internet," claims Aggarwal. IPL, which spans 21 million viewers, will give Vodafone ample opportunity to reach its audience. The miniature ZooZoos can also be seen in print campaigns in the vernacular press and on hoardings in towns that have high purchasing power but low mobile Internet usage.
The ads are becoming popular on the Internet with a large number of Facebook fans and Youtube hits. While the company is happy with the adulation, it is aware that such fans are existing Internet users, and hence, not the target audience for the campaign.
The brief asked the ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), to talk about the Internet on mobile phones. "This time, we created these new characters, which work like the Internet. In a way, we managed to humanise the Internet with these tiny figures," says Rajiv Rao, national creative director of O&M. However, 'ZooZoo army' is not the official name for the miniature characters. "We are yet to name them and have a contest for viewers to suggest names for them," says Aggarwal.
Jagdeep Kapoor, chairman and managing director of Samsika Marketing Consultants says, "Vodafone's objective would be to develop the various product categories it offers in data. With the ZooZoo campaigns, it has been highlighting these utilities. That is why the ZooZoos imagery makes sense even now, because it gets the message across in a simple but creative way. So, the viewer can concentrate on the utility being talked about and not have to interpret a new theme."
One of the popular ads shows a chunky-gold-chain-flaunting ZooZoo step out of a limousine, and accidentally break wind. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, the ZooZoo army runs off with the information, and delivers it to another ZooZoo, sitting happily by a window sill, who breaks into a laugh on receiving the celebrity gossip. Vodafone's one-time Internet trial packs, priced at Rs 25 (2G) and Rs 49 (3G), allow access to such trivia on the web.
"While there are many activities that one can do over the Internet, we focused on the top 10 activities that people engage in - downloading and sharing music, videos, looking for jobs, matrimonial options, celebrity gossip, cricket scores and gaming," says Rao.
Ever since the launch of the ZooZoos mascots in 2009, they have become a cult. The first campaign had been for value-added services. In an effort to retain the novelty around the mascots every year, Vodafone has taken home a few lessons too.
In the first year, Vodafone came up with 30 ads over 59 days, to promote 30 different services. "After two editions, we saw that we had done 60 films on a number of products we offered, but we were running out of them.
We realised that not many users continued with VAS subscriptions," says Aggarwal.
The third season which coincided with the launch of its 3G services, introduced the Super ZooZoo who would fly around, doing impossible things due to its 3G-powered speed. The number of ads was reduced for more traction. "The trials were very high. Around seven million people tried 3G," says Aggarwal. The trials, however, did not convert to high usage as its 3G subscribers number around 2.5 million.
This time around, the operator is hoping to convert the high-priced ad slots, that it has booked during the IPL, into Internet adoption by the non-users. The company will have a maximum of ten advertisements. Its army of Zoozoos still have time to go for the IPL to draw to a close and simplify mobile Internet for the uninitiated.
