Vodafone delights (classroom) advertisement

About the company

Vodafone Essar is the Indian subsidiary of Vodafone Group and commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai. The company now has operations across the country with over 115.55 million customers.

About the product

Vodafone delight is exclusive deals and discounts offered by Vodafone to its prepaid and post paid service users. The deals and discounts are offered on variety of products ranging from high end products like Giordano watches and life style items to books, magazines, dining, entertainment and travel.

Advertisement agency

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, India
Film Director: Prakash Varma, Nirvana Films

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlQOjDd029A&feature=related

About Vodafone Delight campaign

Vodafone India has launched its new service “Vodafone delights” from October, 2010 in a bid to provide benefit of Diwali shopping to its customers. Vodafone is providing deals to its customers not for the recharge this time but on shopping.

Vodafone India is promoting “Delights”, a world of exclusive deals and discounts, with TV advertising campaign featuring school girls in black and white films. These ads are very different from Vodafone’s previous ads such as zoo-zoo and blackberry boys. Till now, the company has issued three advertisements under Vodafone delight. All three advertisements feature same two school girls. The first advertisement is a classroom birthday scene, the second one is a school annual day scene and the third one is an after school cycle scene. All three advertisements show situations from school life which is very common to everyone. “Classroom”, “Cycles” and “Annual Day” show the emotional response associated with receiving special gifts.

Vodafone Delight classroom advertisement storyline

The advertisement opens with a typical classroom setting where a girl is standing in front of the class and all her friends are singing happy birthday for her. The teacher is also standing there and “happy birthday Zoe” is written on the blackboard. The expression on the birthday girl’s face is one of happiness and a little shyness. Then the girl starts to distribute sweets to all her classmates. She gives one sweet to each girl from the box of sweets she is carrying. But when she comes to her friend, she gives her five sweets instead of one. She does not say anything else and moves on. Her friend looks at other girls and feels delighted to get more sweets than others. The ad ends on the happy expression on the friend’s face.

The lines “isn’t it nice when someone makes you feel special?” are then displayed in white on a typical Vodafone red background. The next lines are “enjoy year long privileges with Vodafone Delights” and “join in at www.vodafone.in”. At last the Vodafone company logo comes with the caption “power to you”.

Throughout the advertisement there is a song playing in the background. The lyrics of the song are -

The little things you do for me and nobody makes me feel good...
The little things you do for me... making me smile and no one else could...
That’s why I like to sit next to you and listen to your mad stories...
I know they are not true and I like that we share a secret or two together...

Advertisement review

Creativity: The advertisement is creative in the sense of its use of a simple situation such as classroom birthday party to bring out the emotion of delight one feels when he or she is made feel special. A classroom birthday scene is a very common scene in advertisement. But the way the ad is depicted with melodious background music and black and white film is unique. The lyrics of the song in the background also help to convey message of happiness, care and closeness. It’s a “feel good” ad.

2. Execution: The ad is very well executed. The black and white film with minimum colours used in the ad gives it a different feel. The music in the background is very melodious with guitar and a beautiful voice. There are no dialogues or bright colours used in the ad except the Vodafone red colour. The girls are innocent looking and have acted well. It’s a fine quality ad. The typical red Vodafone background with written lines in white in the end makes the viewer easily connect the ad to Vodafone.

3. Simplicity: The situation shown in the ad is very simple. There is no fancy storyline, stunts, costumes or concept. Typical classroom setting and sweet looking girls in age group of 10-12 years is all that is shown in the ad and yet it conveys the message of little happiness we all experience on being made feel special. There are no dialogues or even a background voice in the whole ad except a slow melodious song in the background. Also, the brand does not use any celebrity to endorse the service.

4. Emotional connect: The ad rates high on emotional connect with the viewer. The situation is so common that everyone can relate to it. Your best friend reserving you a place next to her or a few extra chocolates which you got, especially for you on her birthday or getting a ride to home on her bicycle are situations that we all have experienced during our school days.

5. Relevance: The ad is relevant given the brand’s effort to launch new service to its telecom users and depict itself as a caring brand. The new service being offered is related to deals and discounts on various products and services that Vodafone will offer to its customers. The ad is launched at the right time given that people shop maximum during the festive season of Diwali. Vodafone aims to project itself as caring brand which cares for its customers’ little happiness and wants to give back something to them in return for their loyalty. The lines “isn’t it nice when someone makes you feel special?” and “enjoy year long privileges with Vodafone Delights” in the end convey the message beautifully.

The problem with the ad is that it does not actually tell you much about the product “Vodafone Delights”. It just shows that it feels good to be special and that Vodafone brings similar delight to its customers. It fails to educate the viewer as to what exactly the product/ service is and how can one use it. Given the consumers today care more for benefits, the ad may not prove to be very relevant to the product.

Also, the ad gives just a web address in the end which may make it irrelevant for non internet users.

6. Memorability: The ad is memorable because of its simplicity and catchy background song. The tune is memorable and can be hummed in leisure time. In my opinion, the viewers will most probably remember the ad and its music, they will also remember that it’s a Vodafone ad but what they may fail to remember is that it’s a “Vodafone Delights” ad.

7. Comparison to other recent advertisements of telecom service provider:

a. The idea cellular recently came up with an ad showing Abhishek Bacchan as deaf and dumb who comes with an idea that with help of Idea Cellular network one call translate different languages and talk with anyone. The ad concept is good but not a very different or memorable. Also it does not talk about any additional services that Idea may offer to its users.

b. Airtel also came up with certain ads with celebrities like Saif- Kareena and Sharman Joshi, and highlighted some of the benefits of using Airtel network. Most of its recent ads are not very memorable.

Hence we may safely assume that for now Vodafone is doing well when compared to its competitor’s ads.

8. Interest: The ability of the ad to generate interest in the Vodafone Delights is doubtful. The ad does not highlight what exactly Vodafone Delights is or its benefits. Also, after viewing the ad a few times, the viewer may lose interest because of the slowness or lack of humour. The ad lacks humorous punch lines, fancy props or an all together new concept. The advertisement is “sweet” but lacks “newness” which holds interest for long.

9. Linkage to brand: The advertisement reinforces the positioning of Vodafone as a helpful caring brand. The ad complements Vodafone’s earlier tagline “happy to help” and current tagline “power to you” which shows consumer centric approach of the brand. The ad depicts Vodafone as brand that will make its customers feel special with its services. The ad also goes well with Vodafone’s earlier ads. We all have seen the classy ads by Vodafone years ago. "Where ever you go, our network follows" first quoted by Hutch, and was later carry forwarded by Vodafone Essar. The pug shown in the ad became a brand icon for Vodafone. This time Vodafone is trying to do something similar by creating ads which could really touch its special customers.

My twist

May be the advertisement could have shown more about the service “Vodafone Delight” itself. It could have better explained what the service actually is, what its benefits to the customers are and how it can be availed.

Conclusion

The overall score I would give to this advertisement is 7/10.

The ad undoubtedly scores high on execution. It’s a fine quality ad with a very nice background song. The adjectives that come to mind after viewing this ad are “sweet” and “simple”. It strengthens Vodafone’s brand image as a “happy to help” brand.

However, its impact on revenues is doubtful. The service is not much talked about in the ad and the viewer may remain confused as to what exactly is being offered. The viewer may simply remember it as a “nice” Vodafone ad with good music. Given the arrival of festive season, more emphasis should have been made on it providing deals and discounts. Also, all three ads under the Vodafone Delight campaign are of similar kind with same 2 girls in a school environment. The impact of all three is more or less same. It would have been better if different situations were used targeting different consumer groups. The ads may come across as too slow, innocent and girlie to woo all kind of viewers. Hence the ad may prove more be a brand strengthener for Vodafone as a whole than a revenue generator for Vodafone Delights. It’s now for the viewers to explore Vodafone Delights themselves as Vodafone puts it “power to you”!