If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

When Nokia, the market leader in GSM phones, launched its high-end CDMA phones in the market, it realised that this category of mobile phones faces an image problem in India – it is generally considered inferior to GSM phones. This was because of the large number of low-end CDMA phones rolled out initially in the market.

As Sujatha V Kumar, marketing manager, CDMA, Nokia, says, “The insights that we got from our consumer research was that, traditionally, people considered CDMA phones to be very basic and unimpressive.”

Nokia’s new TVC attempts to change this perception about CDMA phones in the Indian market.

The TVC tells the story of an entrepreneurial tailor, Praveen Bhai PW (played by Vivek Shauq, a well-known comic actor), who gets loads of fame and money with his one innovation, plastic pockets. These plastic pockets drive the entire nation crazy and all sorts of people belonging to different age groups are shown sporting transparent pockets. The reason behind this craze for plastic pockets is that people want to flaunt their Nokia CDMA mobile phones: ‘Dikhaane wali cheez hain’. The story unfolds in typical Bollywood style.

The TVC promotes the brand-new Nokia 1255 and Nokia 2255, which are positioned as stylish phones.

Avik Santara, director, client servicing, Bates Enterprise, the agency which has created the TVC, says, “Based on the insights from the consumer research, Nokia asked us to create an ad that would portray these mobile phones as stylish and full of panache.”

This is also why there is no mention of any product feature in the entire TVC.

Radharani Mitra, executive creative director, Bates Enterprise, adds, “Mobile phones are among the few things that indicate a person’s status. All of us want to show off our mobile phones. It has become a part of our lifestyle. So, we tried to find an idea for this. We thought of having a transparent pocket and then we decided to weave a story around it.”

The TVC has a ‘qawali’ being sung all along, which also narrates the story in the background. Mitra says, “We wanted to make it look like a remix, which can easily get the message into the consumers’ minds.”

“What has worked for the TVC is that the message has come out in a very direct, but simple way,” she adds.

The TVC has been directed by Anand Iyer of Ramesh Deo Production. Iyer says, “The ad has been made loud and colourful so that it displays basic Indian kitsch. In fact, we even added a few characters at our level, which make the TVC look like a full 30-second film.”

© 2006 agencyfaqs!