For IPL 2013 Vodafone, the official partner for IPL and the on-air co-presenting sponsor on TV, has brought back its eclectic Zoozoos characters for this year’s cricket-led campaigns.
ZooZoos, tiny white animated creatures with ballooned bodies and egg heads, have fronted Vodafone’s IPL work since Season 2 and they have almost become an almost iconic part of the wider IPL landscape.
Season 6 sees Vodafone bring back Zoozoos with a fresh twist via a new avatar, as the brand aims to make itself more engaging and consumer friendly.
In the past the Zoozoos have featured in IPL activation campaigns promoting the mobile giant’s various valued-added services and promotional offers and to generally extend the brand’s consumer reach and this season sees the brand add a fresh twist to the concept.
This year the Zoozoos are being used to create relevance for using internet on the mobile and improving the quality of awareness of the internet.
2013 sees Vodafone launch a major mobile internet campaign, with an objective to drive trial of the internet using either ‘Rs 25 2G Starter Pack’ and ‘Rs 49 3G Pack’.
This year’s activity initially began with a Zoozoo teaser spot running on social media via its Facebook page. Vodafone already has over 10 million fans on Facebook, and with this new campaign, it expects to add to that number significantly.
The commercial then aired on TV during the IPL opening ceremony.
The telecoms company is following this up by rolling out nine further spots, each different, through the course of the tournament.
These include the new SuperFan execution,
which encourages consumers to send an SMS to a competition to become one of 76 Vodafone SuperFans to win the chance to watch the match from the hospitality stand, receive a Vodafone kit, and appear live on TV while taking the signed match ball from the winning captain.
In addition to the TV and digital work, the campaign also includes point-of-sale, on-the-ground, radio and press strands to drive mobile Internet pack sales.
The overall aim is to demonstrate mobile internet relevance – from entertainment (video, music, games, social) and information/utility (job search and how-to) – to non-internet users.
The campaign aims to make the online world more interesting and less intimidating.
The concept behind the campaign is to use the executions to promote key triggers for internet adoption: downloading songs, watching videos, sharing photos and connecting with friends.
‘Vodafone India was one of the first few brands to associate with the IPL and iIt has been a fruitful association wherein IPL has delivered high reach through TV and a strong consumer connect for the brand through the on-ground engagement with our customers,’ says Anuradha Aggarwal, Senior Vice President – Brand Communications & Insights, Vodafone India.
‘This year’s campaign aims to drive adoption of mobile internet targeting non users of internet.’
Comment
The TV ratings aren’t quite as high as in the early days, but online and social statistics for IPL 2013 continue to grow at impressive rates.
So a telecoms sponsor using its tournament to promote mobile internet usage seems to be a sensible strategy.
Indeed, most key IPL sponsors are focusing a lot of their firepower and marketing investment on digital and social platforms.
For example, new title sponsor Pepsi has tied up with Twitter to allow viewers to play a Tweet 20 cricket game on the mobile internet, while Google+ is running special Hangout sessions to generate post match conversations
‘The IPL product has become more social, and so have the consumers. Social media is a strong indicator of engagement with content and brands are leveraging the same connection,’ says Tushar Vyas, managing partner of media buying giant GroupM.
‘The IPL is a place for us to catch the consumer and create a buzz around our campaign. We are where our consumers are and these consumers use our service to access social media, which works great for us,’ says Aggarwal.
Links:
Vodafone Zoozoos SuperFan Website
http://microsite.vodafone.in/superfan/index.aspx
Vodafone Zoozoos Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/zoozoo
Vodafone India Website
https://www.vodafone.in/pages/index.aspx
IPL Website
