vodafone pr campaigns

Contents

Serial Number Description Page Number1 Acknowledgement 22 Introduction 33 Objectives and Mission of the Vodafone’s PR 4

4 Budget 4

5 PR tools and strategies used by Vodafone 5

6 Internal PR 87 Vodafone enters India-Takes over Hutch:

ObjectivesThe CampaignsEvaluation

10

8 Zoozoo:ObjectivesThe CampaignsEvaluation

13

9 Conclusion 17

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Acknowledgment

First of all we will thank Almighty God who gave me strength and power to initiate and complete my study.

It is a matter of great pleasure to express our sincere thanks and deep sense of gratitude to our Course Teacher and mentor Ms. Preeti Rajpal Singh, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Delhi University for her kind guidance, inspiration and constant encouragement throughout the duration of term paper.

Aakash, Abhishek, Aditya and Arpit

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Introduction

Hutch Essar was a leading Indian telecommunications mobile operator with 23.3 million customers at 31 December 2006, representing a 16.4% national market share. Hutch Essar operates in 16 circles and has licences in an additional six circles. In the year to 31 December 2005, Hutch Essar reported revenue of US$1,282 million, EBITDA of US$415 million, and operating profit of US$313 million. In the six months to 30 June 2006, Hutch Essar reported revenue of US$908 million, EBITDA of US$297 million, and operating profit of US$226 million.

Up until January 2006, Hutch Essar had licences in 13 circles, of which nine have 900 MHz spectrum. In January 2006, Hutch Essar acquired BPL, thereby adding three circles, each operating with 900 MHz spectrum. In October 2006, Hutch Essar acquired Spacetel, adding six further licences, with operations planned to be launched during 2007.

Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile communications group with operations in 25 countries across five continents and over 200 million proportionate customers by the end of January 2007, as well as 36 partner networks. Vodafone entered Indian Market in 2007 by buying 67% stake in Hutch Essar from Hutch for USD 11.1 Billion. Essar continues to be a partner in the company. Before this deal, Vodafone had 10% share in Bharti Airtel, 5% of which it sold to finance this deal. The Vodafone Group no longer holds management rights in Airtel and is only and investor now.

The new logo of Vodafone represents a quotation mark within a circle. With 'O' in the Vodafone logotype being opening and closing quotation

marks, suggesting conversation. Its logo is a

true representation of that belief - The start of a new conversation, a trigger, a catalyst, a mark of true pioneer. The name Vodafone comes from Voice data Phone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones”.

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Objectives and Mission of the Vodafone’s PR

To create a positive image of the company in the minds of its customers after takeover of Hutch in 2007.

To be the communications leader in an increasingly connected world – enriching customers’ lives, helping individuals, businesses and communities is more connected by delivering their total communication needs.

To cover as much market as possible on the basis of the service that they provide.

To provide customers benefit from a complete Vodafone experience in and out of their homes and offices and to give their customers a consistent experience.

While entering India their main objective and mission was to create a visibility of their company and promote it as a leader by way of promoting the global image of Vodafone.

Budget

There is a pre-determined budget. This budget is devised by the central unit of India and is then passed down to various circles, Mumbai being one of them. PR head needs to formulate all the strategies along with the outside agency i.e. Genesis which sits in the corporate office only. The major expense of the PR department is the fees that they pay to the outside agency. The management allocates Rs10-15crores (approx.) annually to the PR Department. This amount is then further allocated to the various Zonal Offices which prepare their individual budgets according to their requirements.

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PR tools and strategies used by Vodafone

Advertisements:Vodafone believes in advertising through media like television and press as people retain those things that they view visually. Heavy amounts of money are spent on visual advertisements.

It has its corporate news in the CAT 1 papers like Economic Times, Times of India, Hindustan Times and many others. It also has its news in CAT 2 papers including all the regional language papers. It also advertises on television and radio.

Corporate Advertising: Vodafone also undertakes corporate advertising. The PR department informs the spokesperson Mr. Navin Chopra which details he can reveal and which he shouldn’t reveal. He has to be very polite while handling the media. They give everything in writing to the media. The PR department also informs Mr. Navin about how to dodge certain questions with trick and humours so as to maintain the confidentiality of certain important issues like the future plans of the company.

Hoardings: Vodafone uses hoardings also in order to promote their company and the new services or tariffs plans that they are coming up with. This strategy helps in making their target audience aware of their upcoming plans.

Press Releases: Vodafone has a separate press officer that issues all the Press Release. The press officer makes the entire press release and then it’s confirmed by the spokesperson of Vodafone and is then released. They believe Press Releases help in order to maintain very good relations with the media and it also helps them to be in the eye of the audience.

Press Conference: Vodafone uses press conferences as a very powerful tool in handling the media and seeking consumer attention. They hold press conferences at the launch of new services or products of any kind. They also hold press conferences when they are getting into a business deal with some company or to announce half-yearly

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results or financial reports of the company. For example, it held “The India Analyst and Investor Day” in London to talk about its operations in India.

Media Interviews:Vodafone undertakes media interviews with proper planning. It is sometimes initiated by media while most of the time it is by Vodafone. It is handled very carefully specially during crisis or when a new service is launched and is this is used as a very good platform for promotion, building image and even control crisis.

Social Activities: Vodafone undertakes social activities on a huge scale. The Vodafone Group Foundation is committed to providing assistance in the area of disaster response. Its main aim is to develop partnerships which enhance long term disaster response and preparedness activity, working with organizations such as the United Nations Foundation, Oxfam and MapAction. It also seeks wherever possible to make a direct contribution in response to critical humanitarian crises.

The Safaricom Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation, together donate 180,000 US Dollars towards humanitarian relief in Kenya.

Oxfam: VGF is a founding sponsor of the Oxfam 365 programme, an initiative aimed at funding a global rapid response team of aid workers and maintaining the UK’s biggest warehouse with a stockpile of emergency supplies.

UN Foundations: The UN Foundation-Vodafone Group Foundation alliance strives to be the leading public-private partnership using strategic technology programmes to strengthen the UN’s humanitarian efforts worldwide.

Map Action: VGF is supporting Map Action’s humanitarian aid effort in delivering situation maps updated hour-by-hour in the field, that enable aid agencies to do their job of delivering assistance.

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Sponsorships: Vodafone sponsors many events. Some of them are:

IPL: Vodafone Essar is official telecom partner

Vodafone Essar had also signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the IPL to become the Official Telecom Partner and Official Ground Sponsor for 5 years until 2012. Partnership is worth $ 5 million for each of the five years. Under the deal Vodafone customers are able to order tickets for IPL matches on the company’s Vodafone live service and can also participate in the ‘Predict the Man of the Match’ contest and the winner were announced as the ‘Vodafone Winner of the contest’ at the post-match presentation ceremony of the finals.

UEFA Champions League

Vodafone is in its second season as Official Partner and Official Mobile network of the UEFA Champions League, the world's largest annual football competition. Vodafone is delighted to be at the forefront of Europe’s premier club competition. Vodafone is looking forward to strengthening its position as a brand passionate about the beautiful game. It has also come up with Vodafone Stadium of Fans wherein fans can make teams and play for themselves.

England Cricket Team:

Vodafone can’t get enough of the England Cricket Team – 11 years on and their support is still going strong as the principal partner of the

Team. And it’s not just about a logo on a shirt. This partnership gives employees

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and lucky customers unbelievable access to get up close and personal with the Team.

As you can imagine, the life of a cricketer means the team are on the road 10 out of 12 months of the year so a BlackBerry is a must have. The Team use their handsets to email friends & family, surf the net, listen to music and send texts which keep them up to speed no matter where they are in the world.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes:

Vodafone had a contract with the Mercedes. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has extended Lewis Hamilton’s contract with the team for a further five years. The new agreement, which started in 2008, will run up to and including the 2012 season.

Internal PR

Vodafone India issues in house journals for its employees named Baatchit. They believe this helps in maintaining good relations with them. It is issued by the HR Head.

Vodafone operates a range of all-employee share plans to encourage widespread employee share ownership throughout the company. Vodafone won a Global Equity Organization award for best share plan communications in 2006 for the second year running.

They also operate a number of pension plans which vary according to the conditions and practices in the countries concerned. These are provided through defined benefit and defined contribution arrangements. Defined benefit schemes provide benefits based on the employees’ length of pensionable service and their final pensionable salary or other criteria. Defined contribution schemes offer employees individual funds that are converted into benefits at the time of retirement. They also involve them in the decisions of the company. They conduct training programs also for the benefit of the employees and for better experience. They also promote leadership on a large scale.

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This is done in order to maintain very good relations with the employees of the organization.

They also use a hired agency that goes to the Vodafone store with genuine problems. Then they report to the top management of the company stating how the executives at the store responded to their queries and how did they behave with them. This helps the company in making the decisions regarding those executives at the stores. This strategy has helped them a lot in making Vodafone stores a better place so that their customers get even better service.

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Vodafone enters India-Takes over Hutch

On 11 February 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion and had

rebranded itself. This required nearly 250 crores of expenditure by Vodafone but they have successfully painted the town red since most of the cost was towards changing the appearance of the dealers to suit the changed brand which took around 50 per cent of the cost. Later, on 20th

September, 2007 it rebranded its name from Hutch Essar to Vodafone Essar following

Vodafone’s takeover in Hutchison Essar.

Hutch, as a brand, always tried to connect with consumers in simple, honest and real manner, while Vodafone is more young and fun brand. So consumer will see a shift reflecting a more vibrant brand.The “pug” and actor Irfan Khan were initially retained for the brand position. They talked about the exclusivity of the network and the service they are offering to the customer.

As the rebranding campaign begun they started by changing the taglines communicating the change from hutch to Vodafone. The taglines were ‘change is good’, “hutch is now Vodafone”. They changed from ‘where u go our network follows’ to ‘Make The most of Now’ They also carried out a massive advertising campaign to rebrand themselves, and the main feature of their campaign was the Zoo Zoo characters that were used to promote the value added services by Vodafone and became famous as soon as they were launched.

Why use Pug?

Considering the fact that Hutch was a well-loved brand in India and one of the factors of its popularity was the pug. The basic idea was to ensure that people don’t forget the old brand;

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rather, they welcome the new one as an improvement over the old and wanted the customers to know that this brand just got better.

To show this transition it started with the ad with a direct and thematic of pug in the garden with the concluding tagline “Change is good, Hutch is now Vodafone”.

The pug campaign had to be withdrawn by Vodafone as they had received a legal notice from the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) on 25th April, 2008 which alleged that the firm resorted to cruelty to animals by showing a pug running after a school bus. As per the legal notice the third sequence in the ad film for Vodafone’s Customer Service was found to be objectionable by the Film Screening Committee which had asked for the portion to be deleted.

Vodafone’s 24-hour campaign on STAR India

Vodafone collaborated with STAR channel, the leading television network in India, to launch a massive 24-hour nationwide rebranding campaign. Vodafone used all of the commercial airtime across the STAR India network from 9 p.m. on 20 th

September, 2007 to 9 p.m. on 21st September, 2007 to run TV commercials. The 13 channels from the STAR bouquet included STAR Plus, STAR One, STAR Gold, STAR Movies, STAR World, Channel [V], STAR Utsav, Vijay, STAR News, STAR Ananda, STAR Majha, National Geographic channel and History channel.

Star studded field for Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon

After 7 days of the historical takeover of Vodafone over Hutch on 28th September, 2007 the Hutch Delhi Half Marathon was then “Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon”.

Film actors and corporate majors like Yana Gupta, Nafisa Ali, Ajay Bijli of the PVR Cinema Group, HSBC, HDFC, Google, Apollo Tyres, Cannon, American Express Bank, Coca Cola, TV 18, NDTV, ABN Amro, ONGC, DELL and Ericsson took part. Some of the biggest names in long distance running, Francis Kibiwott and Lineth Chepkirui were present. Vodafone announced a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh to the winner, the team

members of the winning team got Rs. 5,000 each and the three runners up teams got Rs. 20,000 each. 30,000 participants took part.

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Vodafone and Coke joined 9XM as platinum sponsors

Vodafone with Coca Cola had roped with INX Media's music channel 9XM as their platinum sponsors for one year. Platinum sponsor's name was flashed everywhere which brought Vodafone well in picture.

IPL: Vodafone Essar is official telecom partner

Vodafone Essar had also signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the IPL to become the Official Telecom Partner and Official Ground Sponsor for 5 years until 2012. Partnership is worth $ 5 million for each of the five years. Under the deal Vodafone customers are able to order tickets for IPL matches on the company’s Vodafone live service and can also participate in the ‘Predict the Man of the Match’ contest and the winner were announced as the ‘Vodafone Winner of the contest’ at the post-match presentation ceremony of the finals.

In IPL 2008 Vodafone continued with pug and “Happy to Help”.

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Zoozoo

Introduction

Vodafone differentiates itself from other telecom operators through its value added services (VAS) and it wanted to educate the customers about it. As the hutch dog had its limitations, Vodafone started using a creature which they call the “zoozoo”, created by the agency O&M. Zoozoos are white creatures with ballooned bodies and egg heads.

Zoozoos were first displayed during The Indian Premier League Season 2 (IPL). Zoozoos promote various value added services of Vodafone. Ogilvy & Mather, the agency that handles Vodafone advertisements, were asked by Vodafone to create a series of 30 advertisements with zoozoo which could be aired each day during the IPL Season 2.

According to Rajiv Rao, National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather, "we wanted to make real people look as animated as possible" and hence employed Bangalore-based Nirvana Films to shoot these ads in Cape Town, South Africa through the Cape Town based production house, Platypus Productions. The Zoozoo's are in fact real small-bodied, thin women covered in layers of white fabric.

The animation cost of making ads with zoozoo instead of employing people in the advertisements is 10-15 times costlier. Moreover Vodafone has to pay Rs. 3 Crores for 30 advertisements 20-30 sec long.

However, the company later decided to rest these super characters for the fear of simply

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using them for all the services that they advertise. But they are still helping Vodafone snap up new customers fast due to its increasing popularity.

The Zoozoo campaign

The ZooZoo campaign is considered one of the best campaigns in the Indian PR history. It generated a lot of interest and curiosity in the minds of the consumers that the Indian advertising had never seen before. And surprisingly, it captured all the market segments be it young or old.

During IPL 2009 season Vodafone had decided to launch 25 advertisements in 30

days. The rational for their introduction during the IPL matches was because

maximum no of people are glued to their TV sets during the IPL season, so the

company thought it prudent to launch these ads during the IPL season in 2009 to

promote different offerings and services by Vodafone to its customers.

The aim was to release approximately

one ad a day, to sustain interest till

the end of the IPL. The another reason

of releasing so many ads was that the

consumers get bored quickly if they

are watching the same Ad daily and

they start losing interest after seeing it twice or thrice.

As part of the strategy, Zoozoos figured on Extra Innings; the post match analysis

show; predicting outcomes with arguably greater accuracy than the regular

panelists.

In the second phase, after the release of these ads, Vodafone promoted these

characters on social media sites, which was another wise decision. Zoozoo fan

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clubs are there on social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, Orkut, Twitter,

and many more, where they have a huge followings. The zoozoo was even

communicated through mails and blogs.

Moreover Vodafone has launched the Zoozoo goodies like zoozoo toys, zoozoo

mugs, zoozoo key chains, zoozoo t-shirts, etc. which have seen a positive

response from the young generation especially of metropolitans.

ZooZoo, the new brand ambassador of Vodafone, has created a furore in the

advertising industry. Zoozoos have been successful in giving Vodafone a makeover

and establishing maximum brand presence.

The Zoozoos received a good response from the audiences as they captured

hearts of thousands of people on Facebook and also became quite popular on

YouTube. Despite getting into silly scrapes and squawking sheer nonsense, they

are helping Vodafone snap up new customers fast. Already Zoozoo ads have had

over 30 lakh viewings on YouTube. Results on Facebook have also been

encouraging with 1.5 lakh visitors and counting. Vodafone extended the appeal

for its egg-shaped characters Zoozoos to social media by allowing users to vote

for their favourite ads and take Zoozoo quizzes.

Endorsement for zoozoo

Vodafone didn’t go for any celebrity endorsement to promote their idea of

ZooZoo. This helped Vodafone to reduce the risks of The Vampire effect (the

issue of a celebrity overshadowing the brand) and mismatch between the

celebrity and the image of the brand.

The responses of the ZooZoo Campaign

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All the TVC’s are available both on youtube and twitter.

On Google, the word zoozoo became the third most searched word on May

04, 2009.

ZooZoo itself has become a phenomenon.

The IPL 2 will forever be remembered as a season of ZooZoos.

SWOT analysis of the ZooZoo Campaign

Strengths

The campaign created the buzz both in traditional media as well as in social

networking sites.

It was a representation of a common man depicted as a cartoon character.

Wide media coverage, more precisely through videos.

Easy animation.

Weaknesses

It has an undermining effect on the product Vodafone.

Difficulty in understanding faced by rural population.

High Advertising costs.

Opportunities

A revolution in the conventional way of advertising that was through public

figures.

Threats

A major intimidation to the brand Vodafone.

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ConclusionSuccess of PR Strategies:

Vodafone has had many successful strategies. One of them is the success of Vodafone in India. Vodafone for the Indian masses was a completely new brand name. Therefore, Vodafone had to see that the positive image of Vodafone is built up in the minds of the people.

In order to promote the brand Vodafone in India, a Central PR team was set up in India. They handled all the promotion activities. They held many press conferences and issued press releases. They also arranged for media interviews. They released many positive articles about the Vodafone Company in all the CAT 1 papers. Today Vodafone is the fastest growing company in the sector in India and is behind only Airtel in absolute terms.

In April, 2010 Vodafone announced that it has crossed the landmark of 100 million subscribers in India. With this achievement, Vodafone Essar becomes world’s 5th operator with 100 million customers in a single country. Vodafone has also increased its market share to strengthen its position as India’s second largest operator in terms of revenue.

It started with about 28 million subscribers across 16 circles in May 2007, Vodafone Essar today has 100 million customers and its footprint has extended to all the 23 circles in the country. This journey is a testimony of Vodafone’s success in a highly competitive and price sensitive market. Around 60% of the Company’s customer additions now come from upcountry areas. With a distribution reach of about 1.2 million outlets, Vodafone is well-geared to serve customers in the remotest corners of India.

Vodafone future PR strategy:

Future PR plan of Vodafone in India is as follow

1. Audience targeting:

PR department of Vodafone in India has to target all the audience right from a milkman to high-profile people. This is because the service and product is used by all the people. So the market segmentation is the whole market.

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2. Hoardings:

Company should have to put more hoardings at strategic locations in order to promote the products and also to maintain good relations with public. It also helps in seeking immediate attention of the consumers.

3. Brochures and pamphlet:

They should distribute brochures and pamphlet in different places to inform the people about any new scheme. They should distribute brochures among the employee also for maintaining good relation.

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vodafone pr campaigns

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