IPL 2009 has a lot of new things to its name. A pre-dominantly Indian tournament moved to South Africa, Knight Riders fiddled with the idea of multiple captains, Modi used his brilliance to come up with strategic or tactical timeout’s. Then we have the fake IPL player saga going on which brought blogging to the center stage yet again. Most of these things are new which might or might not be good for cricket.
One more thing stood out from IPL 2009. No its not McCullum’s tattoos but the new Vodafone ads. To me it is probably the most important thing. Vodafone did not spend on any Star power like Airtel. Instead it chose to use cartoon looking characters to convey the message.
Not only the ads are simple, useful and understandable but they are the most appealing. In fact the ads come as a refresher from the boring matches and lousy commentary. Havell’s used the same ad it did in 2008. Airtel has a new ad for My Airtel My Offer but it is repetitive. Vodafone is playing on both quality and quantity. I have seen at least 8 ads in the new series.
In the US, advertisers of popular brands vie for the prime time spots during the super bowl. They also reserve their best ads for the super bowl. I am hoping the same thing will happen in India going forward. Vodafone waited for IPL to release their new ads.
I am also expecting Vodafone will save its best ads in the same series for the semi-finals and finals. The viewership will be at its peak for the last 3 matches. Vodafone can appeal to most people to increase their revenue on value added services for the last 3 matches.
IPL is the only sporting event which commands the same kind of respect like that of Super Bowl. I am foreseeing a trend which is set by Vodafone. The only question is will other brands follow or choose to use their old boring ads?
If you have missed the Vodafone ads, I am posting few videos below :
New Vodafone Cricket Alerts Ad
New Vodafone Be the star of the Match Ad
Ain’t those ads really great?
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Sriram,
These Vodafone ads are talk of the town. Ogilvy have set the benchmark now for Indian advertising Industry. Airtel Ads were / are great no doubt, Vodafone though has taken the bar to next level. Like you said – They are simplistic, riveting, humorous and impactful all in one nice little red & white package :)
Yeah, these ads are AWESOME !!!
Their voice over is also great…they don’t use decipherable words…but you can kinda feel what the characters are saying…
Great creativity…
Hoping to see such ads more often than the irritating “star power” kinda ads on the lines of “dish karo, wish karo”…
hey arun,
Vodafone has already set a benchmark for advertisements.
but Vodafone is getting rather to the point with no superstars
infact they have created their own. superb work from the advertising team.
bravo !!!
Hi Arun,
I agree. Maximum viewership that a channel can hope for nowadays is during a live match. This ensures the viewer does no switch channels. HEnce, the ad density during Super Bowl. Till date there was lack of a similar single unique yearly game for India. IPL seems to fit the bill.
On the Vodafone ads – sure, they are unique and new, and better than its competitors. However, I somehow dont like the white men with their alien-ish faces. And compared to the older ads of Vodafone, they can seriously do much better for the storylines.
We can see here the power of big ideas. Adds are refreshing and creative enough to create extra share of voice. It will also divert attention to the animation industry.
Hi Arun,
Its amazing that we both wrote the Blog related to Vodafone Ads on same day. Probably we both were astonished the same way at same time by these ads :).
You can check my blog on the same thing here:
http://idubba.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/creative-ad-by-vodafone-in-recession-times/
Any idea about the creator team? These guys deserve an appreciation email and a pat on their backs! Just so creative and fantastic!
SO FAR I HAVE DOWNLOADED ALL SEVENTEEN ADS TILL DATE FROM 18-04-09
ALL ADS ARE MARVELOUS…WILL CREATE HISTORY IN MARKETING FIELD…
MAY BE EVEN PHARMA INDUSTRY ALSO WILL FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE…
THERE ARE NO WORDS TO XPRESS…
WELL DONE… VODAFONE AND TEAM
SURESHMODAK…070509
hi Suresh,
Just needed a little help from you. I want to download the mp3 of “Little things you do-Vodafone new Commercial” but I am not getting any site to do so. If you can and if that wont be a inconvenience, can you tell me from where I can download these Vodafone adds for free.
Thanks And Regards
Anu
the creator of the ad is Rajiv Rao of Ogilvy and Mather
HI,
This vodafone’s ad are very new ,refresing ,humorous & creative & impact full . I think its great thing in IPL & ELECTION
atmosphere. I’m most intrested in watching ads rather than IPL.
Hi Rajiv,
U r awesome. India is cheered by ur add ideas. so entertaining , so natural, u r pride for our nation dude.
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