Replacing the pug with Zoozoo

Most often brands are busy writing witty copies, catchy sign-off lines, but there are a few, who zoom fast into changing their tone and rehashing their brand speak. There is no denying the fact that Vodafone characters, Zoozoos, have been a rage ever since their inception in the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Conceived by the executive creative director of Ogilvy India, Rajiv Rao, the Vodafone campaign has ever since had an outstanding recall. Vodafone was one of the main sponsors of IPL 2, and surely stood out to make something unique, unlike Citi and DLF, for its consumers.

Being undoubtedly more visible than the majority of ads on air, the Zoozoo campaign has been a breakthrough in social media too. Capturing the imagination of a young viewer, typically the target audience for a mobile service provider, worked well for Vodafone Zoozoos.

As fresh and young as the target audience is, the characters, with a cute name, have achieved one of the highest stages of advertisement communication, which we like to call ‘high-involvement’.

Besides, its social media rage and virality and cuteness, the significant achievement for Vodafone is that the campaign made news. Accept it or not, we all have had smiles on our faces each time we saw the warm and adorable Hutch ads with the cute pug; we all remember the campaign ‘Our network follows, wherever you go’.

Well, for some reasons we feel that mobile networks have far superior advertisements than coverage; no offence intended to any mobile operator. Coming back to execution of the Big Idea, Vodafone went on a multi-dimensional tagging of Zoozoos to their range of services, creating more awareness and extending possibilities of information retainership with the consumer, exponentially.

However, like any other campaign, this one too has a flip side. Drastically changing the way a brand, as big as Vodafone, communicates its services to people, raises a lot of questions in the stakeholders’ mind. Is it really required to go on with so many new scenarios to promote Market Tips, Cricket Alerts, and Special Recharge Packs?

How practical is the execution of a totally new campaign, on the client’s expense? Do we really have to do away with the pug? Sure the campaign provoked debates and strong reactions from the business standpoint; it certainly was not just another ship passing by in the night.

What’s the point writing same-old ‘Bachat Pack’ copies and selling your value adds, when you can actually create a consumer experience and capitalise on it. Zoozoo did exactly that by not just limiting the characters to the ad scenarios, but extending them to print-ads, brand merchandises, integration on the mobile-app interface.

Zoozoos have become so viral that there are more than 200 with over 200,000 active followers across social media channels. The biggest piece of the pie is the 2009 award from PETA, for replacing the pug with human alternatives. Thanks to Rajiv Rao.