The zoozoos are back but the fizz is missing

IPL 2009 in South Africa was as much remembered for the miraculous comeback of Deccan Chargers to win the trophy as for the adorable cute looking Zoozoos. They took the advertising industry by storm. Everyone took notice and was the talk of the town. They were the ultimate examples of clutter breaking advertisements.

The zoozoos are back this time too during the IPL. However they don’t seem to have had an effect of a similar kind. The reasons are many. For one, the novelty factor has eroded. Last time, they were like a breath of fresh air. This time, they were expected. Secondly, there is viewer fatigue. Third but the most important reason which could have overcome the other reasons is the zoozoo creatives themselves. None of the ads this time have been outright funny. The only exception could be the ‘jobs on your mobile’ ad where one of the zoozoo acts as cannon gunpowder fired by other zoozoo who is the boss. People can relate to it because it is a real life situation where no subordinate likes his boss.

Judging from the type of work on display with regards to the creatives, I can presume that Ogilvy did not want to continue with the zoozoos. Knowing the high standards of creativity, they would have wanted to come up with something new. The client Vodafone though would have insisted to continue with zoozoos to leverage on their popularity. This is again an example of the power the client has over the agency. If the best advertising agency in the country has to submit to the pressures of the client, you can guess what the situation must be for other agencies.

Return of the Vodafone pug? What is Vodafone thinking!!!

The pug in the Vodafone advertisement became a celebrity around two years back. You had children demanding their parents for a pug. They shouldn’t be blamed because the pug was indeed so cute and adorable. Right from the first ad with that small boy running on a nature’s trail or helping out the girl with her daily chores in the ‘Happy2Help’ campaign, the pug made a place for himself in our hearts. It had a great recall value, first for Hutch and then for Vodafone and that is precisely the reason Vodafone thought of continuing with the pug after buying Hutch.

Vodafone surprised everyone with the Zoozoo campaign for Value-added Services (VAS) launched in a blitz during IPL 2009 in South Africa. There were 30 different types of ads depicting each of the Value-added services. The Zoozoos became an instant hit. They were so adorable and cute just like the pug although not real characters that everyone went ga ga over them. There were articles written on blogs, in newspapers, discussions on Radio and the Zoozoos were all over the place. Vodafone O&M (who made the concept) would have been surprised at the result, of course pleasantly. They were the talk of the town. The Zoozoo recall value has reached such high proportions that it had almost made people forget about the pug. They became synonymous with the IPL.

I thought it was a strategic move by Vodafone. One, they were moving towards post paid customers who are going to increase with time by offering them Value-added services. This would bring them bigger revenues. This seemed a long term strategy, say 10 years long. Second, they moved away from the pug which essentially was a ‘hutch’ pug.

With the Zoozoo identity, Vodafone now stood for the Zoozoos. They were successful in changing the perception of customers from pug to Zoozoo. Doing it in such a short span of time, kudos should be given to the team at O&M for conceptualising such awesome characters.

Unfortunately, much to a disappointment of many a marketing people, the pug is back again with the small girl to ‘help us’. This is totally inexplicable. After such a successful transition, why would you want to go back to the pug? It would have been understandable to go back to them had Zoozoos failed to create an impact and the transition.

Some of the reasons marketers say is that it was a temporary campaign and it was never a strategy to move away from the pug. Zoozoos were specifically for the VAS purposes. It seems O&M team thinks that whatever they do will turn to gold. This seems to be an exception though, atleast as far as I think. Return of the pug will not affect sales but it will affect Vodafone’s long term prospects and what they had set out to achieve.

This action has given a chance for the other service providers to position themselves as VAS providers. Aircel, especially, should make use of this opportunity since they have the widest range of Value-added services. There last attempt at positioning as VAS providers was overshadowed by the Zoozoos. They should go all out now to take the place which rightfully can be claimed by them, simply for the type of VAS they can provide.

Reliance Communications too can do it. They have launched there high speed internet card. This is the right time to go for VAS since with time, the internet penetration in India will increase and with 3G coming over, speeds will increase, prices will drop and more people will use internet on their phone.

Vodafone have themselves to blame. It is a cardinal sin to move from identities. Only time will tell the implications of the return of the pug.