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With its part-emotional, part humorous advertising, Idea Cellular has always managed to stand out as a 'warm' and 'approachable' brand in today's competitive telecom market. afaqs! speaks to Sashi Shankar, the brand's chief marketing officer (formerly COO, Idea) about the brand's advertising, digital aspirations, the ever-growing handset industry and more.
Edited Excerpts
Your recent Honey Bunny campaign was a hit. Why highlight a basic feature like network?
Sales is not the sole objective of advertising. Particularly in the telecom category, advertising is done more for enhancing brand visibility and to build connect with audiences on an emotional front. It helps in improving brand consideration and brand preference amongst current and prospective consumers. Idea's campaigns have always had high emotional appeal and strong recall value.
The objective of this particular campaign was to showcase Idea's pan-India network strength. Idea's network is deep-rooted and provides connectivity even in remote interiors of the country. It appeals to people of all demographics and sociographics. The story is about 'One India' with many regional flavours, depicting the diversity of the country.
'What an Idea Sirjee' has achieved iconic status, so much so that some categorise Idea's communication into two eras based on it. How do you react to this?
It is not right to categorise the various phases in brand Idea's journey the way you have. Our ads under the 'What an Idea Sirji' series have indeed been very popular and the tagline is now part of folk lore and everyday vocabulary.
With the core brand philosophy of Idea being the same all these years, every now and then, Idea does come up with ads with a different message and flavour. During this journey, we have also come out with other memorable campaigns such as 'No Idea, Get Idea' which have received global recognition.
'What an Idea, Sirji' is a narrative style of communication and anytime we have a good narrative, we can bring it back.
You have been in the telecom business for more than a decade. How has the sector changed over the years?
Mobile telephony in India has gone through many stages of evolution, starting from the era of high tariffs for both outgoing and incoming, to one of the lowest tariffs in the world, to the current emerging mobile broadband. Broadly, it can be divided into two stages - voice; and now, voice and data.
The original excitement around telcos has moved to handsets. Besides advertising, how do you plan to keep the buzz alive around Idea?
Devices play an important role in enhancing service experience for the user. Idea has introduced a range of affordable 3G handsets, all under Rs 8,000, to propagate data usage amongst mass consumers on the Android platform and latest technology.
Focus on enhancing consumer experience, and understanding and providing support to users' needs and requirements is important, especially in relatively new and emerging service areas such as 3G.
What role does digital play in your scheme of things?
Idea looks at digital not only from a brand communication platform but also from a brand innovation and engagement perspective.
The Honey Bunny song was first released on YouTube and other social media platforms, and its popularity in this medium has been key to the campaign's overall success. The song/TVC has more than two million views on YouTube, and the Honey Bunny download page on the website has over two lakh unique visitors. We have recorded over five million downloads of the Honey Bunny Dialer Tone, so far. The jingle has become one of the top 10 virals of 2012.
Idea believes the digital space is where people are always connected. Hence it is necessary for the brand to be present here 24X7. Our innovative digital medium initiatives have led us to become one of the most visible and followed brands on social media.
