ZooZoo-ism is the new religion

Finally, I have decided to write about the latest sensation of the advertising world - ZooZoos (not sure about the origin of the name but I quite like it). The day I saw the first ad (click here to see all the ZooZoo ads), the planner inside me got curious to know the creative brief that the planner on the account must have given to the creative team. Whatever the brief might me, its creative manifestation has ensured that Vodafone continues to enjoy the consumers' affinity in the 'post-pug' era (click here to see the ad). ZooZoomania has taken over the imagination of the people. After a long time, I saw people waiting for an ad to come on TV .

As they say, if advertising is the religion, ZooZoo's are the God :)

Thankfully, O&M, the creators of ZooZoo, extended the thought beyond the mass media and built communities and fan groups (click here) on the social networking sites. The official fan page of ZooZoo on Facebook has more than 3lac fans. (Shahrukh Khan's fan page has around 2.5 lac fans. Click here).

The challenge, however, is to carry forward this euphoria and ride on it as far as possible. Few top of mind options-

- Advertising is nothing but creative storytelling: ZooZoo's became popular because everytime they appeared on television, they had something fresh to tell. People waited for those new 'stories'. Use digital media to tell new and innovative stories about ZooZoo's, by the ZooZoo's. Nothing stops Vodafone to tell interesting ZooZoo stories in 140 characters. That could in fact, attract people to create their own ZooZoo stories. Did I just hear ZooZoo comic?

- Offer what consumers want: People love those 'irrational noises' - the ZooZoo talk. Is there a possibility to do something around that? Can we take it on to the mobile platform? How about ZooZoo based VAS offerings?

- Come out of the television, get in to their homes (and hearts): Indian answer to the 'firang' Barbie. Believe me, its gonna be a hit.

All said and done, one thing needs to be taken care of in the long term. Hutch (and Vodafone) streched the whole 'pug' story too far. From 'pug-o-mania', it went on to become 'pug-o-phobia'. Avoid that in this case.

Waiting to see more stuff on ZooZoo. Hope the entertainment continues.

Me-too Blogs!

Having watched a lot of me-too ads, me-too brands and me-too products over the years, I wasn't surprised when I saw a 'me-too' blog. Following the stupendous success of the Fake IPL player's blog (click here to see), another blog called 't20worldcupmole.blogspot.com' (click here to see) has come into the limelight. The author claims to be a part of one of the teams participating in the T20 World Cup.

My initial reaction - hmmm...let's wait and watch.

The initial response to the blog is nowhere comparable to the FIP blog. This blog only has 2 followers and hardly around 100 comments. But passing any judgement at this point of time about the popularity/following of this blog would be too premature. Once the World Cup begins, then only we would get a clear picture.

Few random thoughts on 'Me-too' stuff -

- 'Differentiate or Die' Or 'Diferentiate & Die': Its all about cracking that 'insight' basis which a branding idea is developed. The insight/branding idea for two different brands may be silmilar, the execution needs to be different and obviously better (Sorry, Mr. Jack Trout). Differentiating your brand just because your competitors' have already postioned themselves in a certain way is definitely debatable. Two different brands can own the same idea and still execute them in a completely different way. Two brands can still survive without infringing into each other's territory.

- Trust your consumer : You don't need to get defensive in case their are any similarities between the two ideas. Recently, Ad-pundits have pointed out lot of similarities between the latest Loop mobile campaign and the Vodafone (then Hutch) campaign. So What?? How does it make a difference. Leave it to the consumers to decide. If the consumers find a better emotional connect in the recent campaign compare to the earlier one, they will accept it otherwise it would be forgotten just like most of the other campaigns.

Emotions in Advertising

"Advertising is an art of manipulating the emotions of the people".
Products have rationales, brands have emotionales. This was one of the most important learning that I had during my post-graduation. Thanks Sumit!!, for putting this into my head.
Unfortunately, most people do not differentiate between a brand and a product. What is fastrack selling? Watches, accessories....no. Fastrack is selling fashion.
What is the brand Reliance all about? It's about ambitions and dreams. Tata is selling trust, volvo is selling safety.
Advertisers, apart from being creative, are the experts in exploting these emotions of human beings. Advertisers know that selling a product to the consumers is difficult but selling emotions is not. Remember Hutch (Vodafone) pug!!