New Age marketing: The power of Zoozoo

This year IPL; in addition to the cricketing entertainment, created other news as well, the Vodafone Zoozoos. The cute, cuddly characters that featured in a series of 29 commercials that ran right through the IPL matches suddenly caught the imagination of the public.

Three other telecom companies ran strong brand campaigns — in fact new commercials- during the same period. Airtel created two pieces of communication leveraging the chemistry of Vidya Balan and Madhavan. Idea leveraged their tie-up with the Mumbai Indians to run an interactive campaign of talking to the stars. Aircel aired their MS Dhoni advertisement of ‘aur bolo’. Yet the animated Zoozoos became celebrities in their own rights and outdid the ‘celebrity’ campaigns. They popped up finally in the stands during the finals of IPL; there were lakhs of entries about them in the blogosphere. The Vodafone Zoozoos were more than an advertising piece; they created buzz for themselves that increased the campaign’s impact manifold!

Borrowing from the cartoon world, they appeal to the child in most of us — yet the contexts and situations in which they are placed and the services they sell are so adult and real. Rounded edges, weird sounds yet decipherable language, and fluidity of movement add to the ‘innocence of feelings’ in a world that is getting more and more ‘manipulative and angular’ in thought.

The fact that the Zoozoos outdid well-known celebrities this season re-confirms that advertising cut-through is not dependant on the use of known faces. A strong campaign can create celebrities and the Zoozoos provide Vodafone with characters that can not only become brand mascots but also be converted into merchandising that can be monetized. In fact, that’s the unique power of animated characters, eg Disney ones — they are brands in search of products — slap them onto anything connected especially to children and the price goes up.

It will be a good lesson for all those companies who spend huge amount to catch the eyeballs. This is sheer example of thinking outside the box.