Of course I didn't watch the Hutch(oops Vodaphone) TVCs on now the much hyped Star TV block. There are more interesting things like the Twenty20 on the tube!Hyped as a major media innovation( although I fail to see why it's an innovation.)It's a big budget ROAD BLOCK rather than a Great Idea.
Well, finally Hutch - the country’s fourth-largest mobile service provider has changed it's identity yet again. And I think it has done it the right way. Almost too right I feel:-)
1. Retained the cute, lovable pug as well as the two animated characters (the girl and the boy)
2. Promises to retain the tagline - "Wherever you go, the network follows" especially for the network related ads.
3. “Hutch was a well-loved brand, and all the things which the customer found endearing will continue to be projected,” said Harit Nagpal, the company's marketing and new business director, on agencyfaqs.com. Well, that again is the most sensible thing to do. Indian marketers I feel are too trigger happy with change. Very often change for change sake!
4. The company insists, Vodaphone will be a more mass brand, offering value-added services, in all the existing 16 circles rather than maintaining an up-market brand imagery from it's international lineage...
5. It's among the most humongous brand name changes in Indian marketing, affecting the lives of almost 35 million customers across 400,000 shops! And looks like the client and the agency have done a great logistical job!
From the little that I have seen of the name-change, it's bang-on and correct but somewhere my expectations from Hutch( sorry Vodaphone:-) and the agency Ogilvy in particular were a bit higher...But it's still early days!
Ogilvy has a habit of surprising everyone with great advertising particularly towards the year end:-)
5 comments:
"all the things which the customer found endearing will continue to be projected" - yes but that and a tagline "change is good" hardly go together - and what does that line mean, suggest anyway? seems very presumptuous to me...
I agree about the way the company has handled these name changes - the logistical difficulties - especially since orange / Hutch has always been strong on outdoor - I have seen Bombay go from Orange to pink and now red steadily!
Charu
http://indsight.org/blog
Hi Charu
agree with your comment...It is presumptuos!! I guess that's manufacture speak raising it's not-so-handsome head...
with 400cr of marketing budget, change better be gud:-)
hey...you have got a great blog! cheers
well, my take on this is a little different, do visit my post....and me, i'm here this week and thirsty for some good coffee :-), and an even better argument on the rights and wrongs of hutch-vodafone
The only real measure of change is the number of customers they can retain.
There are three precedents to this campaign (hats off to Ogilvy for managing the changes), and more recently, in the case of UTI Bank. Worth examining if "everything else remains the same" is the right message. Is it a welcome message? Or perhaps, playing a little safe?
As a paying subscriber, i certainly hope they manage to get a little better with their services. Customer service during the "Orange" glory days was legendary and set a precedent for everyone else.
Hey manish..this is Urooj..I think its a litle too early too comment on the creative but till now whatever i have seen of the Hutch to Vodafone transition..i think its truly phenomenal, from the perfect timing in the change across all consumer touchpoints, wether its my bill, hoardings, TV, sim cards, centres to anything...its truly a logistics feat..also a very simple example..they gave a cute vodaphone logo stick on with the new bill which immediately tells consumers change is good..everybody liked it and atlest 10 ppl around me have actually used that stick on including me..as far as the creatives are concerned ..i think they are utilising their 500 crores very well by coming up with multiple creatives as u say of shorter duration to avoid repetetiveness and ennui...kudos to Oglivy and Vodaphone for ths one atleast...
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