Tata Indicom: What your ‘bahana’ is?

We all know someone who just can’t stop talking over the phone, especially when you have made the call. While some of us listen politely to the long-winded tales, others have found a way around it – tell a white lie.

Tapping into this insight, Tata Indicom has launched its latest TVC, which depicts people in different situations making excuses to hang up when the outgoing mobile phone call is beginning to get a bit unbearable on the pocket. “At some point, we all can identify with this,” says Prasoon Joshi, regional creative director, South and South East Asia, McCann-Erickson. The ad has been created by Joshi, along with Vistasp Hodiwala and Akshay Kapanak, both from McCann.

Joshi says that everyone wants value for money, not just the middle class. Everyone wants to save on outgoing calls by keeping conversation to a tolerable minimum. “When the important part of the conversation is over and the fellow at the other end is still going on and on, people get irritated and are compelled to make excuses to hang up,” he explains.

The agency used this real life insight to convey the benefits of Tata Indicom’s latest offering: the 1399 phone + talk time combination.

The film opens with a voiceover: “Bahane outgoing calls kaatne ke (The excuses people make to cut down on their outgoing calls).” The first shot shows a young girl talking on her cell phone while walking on the road. Eager to hang up and save on her outgoing talk time, she presses the horn of a nearby taxi frantically, pretending to not hear what the person at the other end of the phone is saying, and hurriedly hangs up. The second shot shows a college boy on the phone. In a bid to stop whoever it is at the other end, he deliberately makes the sound of a shrill college bell using a device in his bag, saying that he needs to go in to class.

The third vignette shows a young executive in office. While on his cell phone, he mimics the voice of his deep-throated boss, calling out his name (“Deepak! Come to my cabin!”). Pleading that his boss is calling him, he hangs up, only to find his boss actually standing near his cabin and, this time, the boss does sternly call out to the executive.

Last of all, the film has a father talking on his phone, sitting on a park bench next to his child. His ‘bahana’ (excuse)? He snatches away his kid’s lollipop, making him scream loudly, and then mutters into the phone, “Pappu ro raha hai. Main baad mein phone karta hoon (Pappu is crying. I’ll call you later).”

The voiceover then announces that you no longer need to make excuses to cut your outgoing calls. Tata Indicom’s newest handset comes for Rs 1,399, with 1,399 minutes of free talk time, including incoming calls free for a year (without recharging).

Does that sound similar to Reliance Communications’ latest ‘missed calls’ offering? “In the telecom industry, there are only three things one can play around with: incoming services, outgoing services and handset prices,” says Abdul Khan, vice-president and head, marketing, Tata Teleservices. “Offers can be replicated, but what really matters is how one says it or puts it across to the consumers.”

Joshi further says that while it was a bit difficult to differentiate from the Reliance ad, the agency didn’t have to look far to make the ad unique. It banked on the Tata Indicom value set – charm, irreverence and cheeky humour – to get the point across.

The TG for this communication is mainly the youth, those in the 20-40 years’ age group, SEC BCD. The college kid/executive angle has been added to give an aspirational feel to the communication.

As per mobile tracking research done by the company, consumers, through focus group discussions, threw up the insight that they are compelled to make excuses to save on outgoing calls.

“You may tell your parents/family or very close friends that you are running out of outgoing money and have to hang up, but you can’t do that with societal friends or people from the workplace,” Joshi explains. “And the brand Tata Indicom has always emphasised that the mobile phone is meant for talking. Remember the Kajol-Ajay Devgan ads?”

Interestingly, the duo wasn’t used in this communication. According to Joshi, that’s because the agency felt the viewer would not identify with a celebrity cutting calls in this manner. “For this tactical communication, we wanted the protagonists to be from real and identifiable walks of life, such as a college or office,” he says.

The film has been directed by Sujay Shetty of Whodunit Films. It was shot at the Bharat Petroleum quarters in Chembur, Mumbai (except the office setting, which was shot in a nearby area).

Various situations were discussed and debated, such as a housewife throwing utensils noisily on the floor, with an excuse ready to cut the call. “But these were rejected,” Shetty reveals. “The client essentially wanted outdoor situations because the mobile phone is an outdoor item.”

Khan of Tata Teleservices is unwilling to talk numbers for competitive reasons, but says that the commercial has generated a ‘good response’. Perhaps he was in a hurry to ‘hang up’…

No pun intended.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!