Mere Pass ZooZoo hai!!

Amidst all the IPL hoopla, the new series of Vodafone ZooZoo ads stand out. You can read the entire story of the making, the production, the props and people involved in the campaign here at afaqs... Ads on youtube here.

Was speaking to my friend Kumar @ Ogilvy after browsing through the zoozoo fan club on facebook(it's got > 26K fans!!) a while back and then generally thought about the zoozoos...

1. Talk Value. It's a great example of awesome creatives generating a natural buzz for the brand in internet time. With the top end of the audience now digitally immersed, they are commenting on, participating in the zoozoo conversation.

Also the brand is giving back enough stuff - wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, IPL related offers, special tag-me images, Zoozoo sounds(Zoozoo laughter and music tracks, ad previews, Twitter updates etc.

2. Stories. But is that enough? Perhaps not. Maybe there is space for an entire zoozoo world with zoozoobeings with their zoozoo antics! In a digital world, the digital creative has an infinite life and therefore if you have great creative content like the 'zoozoos' one could look at creating more stories for niche consumption and popular culture seeding. Of course vodafone has done good stuff through the zoozoo quizzes and contests!! But there is scope for much more.

3. Conversation Creative.Zoozoos are a great example of a new creative style - the conversation creative where the TV creative generates great and ongoing conversations in the digital world(and of course the offline world as well). The 26K+ fans on facebook, the 84 comments on the afaqs article, the twitter fan following are all adding on to the conversation.

While I quickly scanned through the comments on afaqs, stumbled upon some zoozooisms- "Mummy mujhe zoozoo lagi hai", zoomply great, keep zoo zooing, zoo che!!!

This is a new strain of co-created conversation creative that is being created in real time and the agency and brand team can brainstorm how best to make use of it...

It is interesting content which can either die a natural death or put to better use!
Also, is the brand bold enough to open up the Zoozoo creative for the consumers to play! A campaign that can create 26K fans in a short time has great UGC potential.

4. Amplification. The other area where brands need to put more focus is amplification of the 'core idea'. A great and viral-ble idea like the zoozoos should now be amplified and seeded into popular culture. Of course the facebook, twitter stuff is good but perhaps it needs to be amplified through the mobile phone to really blow up the idea in a big way!!

5. Surprise is the new consistency. In the consumers-are-bored-and-networked era, brands must learn to surprise their followers rather than needlessly bother about consistency. Zoozoos have nothing in common with the pug(apart from the simplicity and cuteness quotient) or the Vodafone boy-n-girl, yet they make for arresting memorable stories. The consumer mind has evolved to a stage where he/ she can store these multiple stories and enjoy them and connect them back to Vodafone.

We shouldn't worry too much if the Zoozoos get more Talk Value in the short term than Vodafone itself! Zoozoos, the pug are cute characters , obviously they will get talked about more than the brand name...

Once again, some inspiring stuff from Ogilvy and very digital-media-friendly creatives...

CEAT : Born Tough. Died Unceremoniously

It's the season of random logo changes(or so I feel). First Shoppers Stop, then Godrej, then agencyfaqs and of course CEAT. And all of them have been big disappointments!!

CEAT has been the most beguiling, bewildering of all the logo changes. Ray & Keshawan have produced another characterless dud. My favourite Rhino has been killed!!

Of course the company cites some insipid research where consumers have said the logo is old and the rhino slothful. Alas the consumers were projecting their impressions of the company on the logo!

Anyways, once again Change is for the worse, Change is bloody expensive(apparently CEAT is burning 10 crores on the Ogilvy made ad campaign and Change is confusing as hell...

The Rhino and Born Tough were iconic emblems of brand CEAT. They could have been easily contemporised...

These days many clients brief design agencies independently on corporate brand changes without keeping the ad agency in the loop. The end result is often a disconnected change bereft of the brand history and context!!

You can read Harish B's related post on the subject here...

Goafest - Bajate Raho!!

There was a huge ruckus created in the Indian advertisingscape over an article by afaqs Sreekant Khandekar on wednesday. Read the 'Rant Against Scam' article here. You may want to read my last year's post on Goafest here...

Had scrbbled some lines on the flight back from Goa...Sreekant's rant inspired me to complete the 'tukbandi'. Here it is!!

Goafest - Bajate Raho

Teen hazaar se jyada delegate, pachason agency
Last year se jyada thi excitement ki frequency

Mausam tha great, arrangement super-fine,
Daaru was flowing, one only missed good wine!

Zoom party thi hot, so was the rain dance
Youngistaan mein 40+ bhi le rahe the chance!

Hoodi baba, Balki ka is baar bhi tha kehna
Goafest se humme door hi hai rehna!

Joshiji ka convincing nahin tha bahana
Jhooth bolne ka ab nahi raha zamana!

Entry nahin thi to scam hi kartey
Sab ne jam ke kiya, aap kyun the dartey!

Last year ka scam king Rediffusion raha peechey
Lagta hai midland book-store ne budget kiya neeche!

Is baar Burnett ne jeeta scam king ka khitaab
Lintas ke client ki chura li poori kitaab!

Jury ne mil kar Ogilvy ki kheechi taang
Pandeyji ne 3rd umpire se ki appeal ki maang!

Wahi puraane chehre, mostly puraani sound byte
Logo ko chhota karo, reduce font ki height!

Goafest hoga har baar goa mein, CM ne diya vaada
Lagta hai chadhai thi do peg jara jyada!

Ek aur beeta saal, ek aur Goafest
Mind mat karna doston, this was half in jest:-)

(P.S. The picture you see on top is that of Goafest 2007 and not 2008.)

Bang On, Big Bang But Very Expected!

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:-)

Hindustan Ka Dil Dekho

I quite liked the print avatar of the MP Tourism film!

Folk song meets comic book strip meets print ad.
Wish they had done a full pager:-)

GoaFest : Absolut Patli Gali

I think I pronounced my judgement on GoaFest a day too early! After the impressive event, came the dampener. The actual award show was ABSOLUT SCAM-VERTISING!

As Trevor Beattie said in his interview - you could spot the scams from a mile!

Amongst the biggest scamsters this year was Rediff! There was almost nothing that they had done for their biggest clients - Airtel or Colgate! Most of the awards were won for vague clients like the Midland Second Hand Book Shop!!

The worst categories were print and out-door, where almost 80% of the work appeared to be SCAM.

What is particularly depressing is that as an industry we are endorsing and celebrating the scam culture! So little respite in the years to come either...

I sorely missed Ogilvy. I think Ogilvy alone at the Abbys had more authentic/ mainstream work than all the agencies combined at the GoaFest.

So, in the end I would give full marks to GoaFest - the event and spectacle. But if one has to see genuine work, one would still have to rely on the men in black!