Uninor Creates a Roaring Launch in Gujarat
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IN FOCUS July 2010, Mumbai EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 24 Uninor creates a roaring launch in Gujarat By Karishma Hundalani Uninor set out to launch its service in Gujarat with a real degree marketing campaign. This campaign has the right impact. The brand, which is targeted to the youth, is using a mix of print, outdoor, television, radio, and retail advertising 360 degrees marketing strategy for its launch in this market. along with a generous dollop of engagement activities While the brand is launching simultaneously in other for both retailers and consumers at the street level. geographies as well, it has customized its promotion tools and messages for the Gujarat market while still staying true The ultimate goal for us will remain the same; be as to the over all brand personality and promise. close to the customer as we possibly can, by putting people first; meet them where they are: street corners, Olav Sande, Executive Vice President, Mumbai Hub, Uninor malls, airport check-in counters, departure terminals. details the strategy for the launch in Gujarat; nuances of Basically, bring the brand where the people are. this market and the importance of the promotion campaign for the launch. Excerpts below: Keeping in sync with the national strategy our product offering (which is the messaging for the launch campaign), Strategy for launch is a radical new concept of Dynamic Pricing (DP). Branded Uninor as a national brand has a personality which as ‘24X7 Badalta Discount Plan’, DP offers call discounts is youthful, direct, raring to go, uncomplicated and that will change from 5% to 60% with location and with time. ambitious – just like the youth of this country. When we This concept ends the tariff raj and puts the power in the were launching in Gujarat, the thought was to create hands of the customer. the same brand resonance in this market as well. Gujarat Market Our two most important objectives are to create a strong Gujarat is like a big country for us, with a population of brand recall and brand connect amongst the people of over 6 crores! A ‘one size fits all’ policy won’t work here, we Gujarat by engaging with them at various levels – both know, hence we have adopted a micro market approach ATL and BTL, hence we supported our launch with a 360 to really understand the needs of the customers. For ease EIF_UNINOR.indd 13 7/3/2010 7:36:57 PM IN FOCUS July 2010, Mumbai EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 25 of operations we have divided the state in five zones - Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot, Surat and Mehsana and we will use all available means of communication to reach out to our target audiences. We will talk to people in a language they will understand– hence all our communication across ATL and BTL activities will be in Gujarati, apart from English and Hindi. We also carried out one of the largest street engagement programs across Gujarat, where more than 1000 individuals (employees and promoters) took over the streets of Rajkot, Surat, Mehsana, Baroda and Ahmedabad, to engage with common public and retailers alike. We call it the Blue Wave, Olav Sande and no other brand does an engagement program at a scale Executive Vice President like this. The whole point is to meet customers, retailer, and business partners alike in the marketplace; where they are; and engage with them, learn their needs from them, tell them Partner Agency about our product etc. We believe in putting people first and Our agency is an important business partner and we the Blue Wave is an example of that; it is a personalised see them as brand ambassadors; they really help us in approach towards understanding the pulse of the market. furthering our reach into the market and provide support wherever required. Therefore, the agency serves as our In keeping with the company’s philosophy of ‘Being arm to increase our on-ground presence and also educate Inspiring’, Uninor has been experimenting with outdoor the market (that includes, retailer and customers) about advertising mediums for creating a high brand recall Uninor and what are its offerings for Gujarat. The agency is and visibility in the minds of the consumer. It’s never- measured on parameters like speed of delivery, efficiency, done-before ‘LED on Wheels’ initiative is being rolled ideation, experience and knowledge of the region. We went out with a similar vision to take Brand Uninor to through a series of agencies before closing in on SOI Live the customer across all the major cities of Gujarat. Marketing. The brand joined hands with SOI Live Marketing large scale activity, reaching out to a maximum number of to engage consumers and dealers across 24 cities the TG, which is apparent from the campaign.” and towns across Gujarat through the Blue Wave activation. The activity took place in the month of June. The Blue Wave campaign consisted of three main aspects: The flag off events for promoters and employees involved Commenting on the integrated campaign and the client’s in the activation; the ‘tilak’ events for the retailer / dealer requirement from this launch activity, Himanshu Shah, audience and the POS (point of sale) activations which Chief Mentor, SOI Live Marketing, explained, “The client engaged the consumer. had a dual purpose, of reaching out to consumers as well as dealers through one integrated campaign. We ideated Please explain in detail the order of events, namely, the specific mediums and activities to reach out to each of these POS activation, Tilak event and the Uninor launch event target groups. Moreover, the objective was to have a very and flag off. Explain order and details of each part of the EIF_UNINOR.indd 14 7/3/2010 7:37:23 PM IN FOCUS July 2010, Mumbai EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 27 overall campaign. Commenting on how this activity suited the Gujarat audience specifically and also the scale of the campaign, Shah elaborated, “The flag off events took place in each of Shah expalied, “The core idea of the activity was very the major cities targeted for this campaign, i.e. Ahmedabad, traditional, which resonated with all the audiences touched Baroda, Surat, Rajkot and Mehsana. These events took through the program. We ensured the scale was huge, so place simultaneously in each city on the same day. The the overall impact was high. The chocolates, sugar packets events were planned to flag off the entire Blue Wave team, and die-cut bills produced for this activity in lakhs, which comprising of promoter and employees involved in the ‘tilak’ can give you an idea of the scale of this activity.” activity and POS activation.” All promoters and Uninor employees involved in the flag off events, dispersed to their assigned beats to carry forward the other aspects of the campaign and carry out assigned tasks of engagement. The objective of the ‘tilak’ activity was to highlight the auspiciousness of the occasion and a dealer’s association with the brand Uninor. Promoters and ‘dhol’ players went to retailer outlets across the cities and towns and honoured them by applying ‘tilak’. Shah added, “There was a lot of festivity surrounding this activity, with ‘dholis’ and promoters put ‘tilak’ on to retailers and also shared sweets with them, which is typically what we do on festivals / auspicious occasions.” Promoters involved in the ‘tilak’ activity also passed on flyers (die-cut handbills) and sugar packets and chocolates, which said ‘Shubh Mahurat’ (auspicious time) to consumers and retailers at large. Through the POS activity, promoters that stationed at retail outlets engaged consumers in various ways and imparted A total 24 cities and towns were covered through this knowledge about the brand and its services. Consumers campaign. 2000 client, agency and promoter representation were also gratified with gifts and merchandise, Shah were deployed for this activity, which reached out to more elaborated, “Promoters engaged consumers with puzzles than 25,000 retailers and 10 lakh consumers through various and other games, which helped in imparting product mediums of communication and activation. More than 50 knowledge and also rewarded participants with branded high capacity vehicles were deployed for the transportation gifts.” of manpower and material to each of the towns. EIF_UNINOR.indd 15 7/4/2010 2:21:07 PM IN FOCUS July 2010, Mumbai EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 29 Google Creative Sandbox comes to India By Shweta Ramsay After organising Google Creative Sandbox in San Shailesh Rao, Managing Director, Google India and Head of Francisco, Chicago, New York and Sydney, Google Media and Platforms said, “The event is an effort to engage brought the event to Asia for the first time. The Google and enable agencies and marketers to foresee the endless Creative Sandbox event was organised in India on May 28 possibilities that they can explore in the digital medium and go at the India Bulls Centre in Mumbai. The event, managed beyond the traditional campaigns that we see today in India.” by Wizcraft International, was an invite-only event for representatives from advertising agencies and marketing Why India? heads of leading brands in the country. The event Savio Barretto, Marketing Manager Google India, said, showcased Google products to the invited guests with “When the Google Creative Sandbox was first conceived experiential demonstrations on how these technologies in Mountain View, the idea was to spark the imagination of can be used to reach across to consumers more effectively. agencies by immersing them in a highly unique and creative environment that showcases some of the best uses of What is the Google Creative Google products. With close to a hundred million people online and so much innovation from both agencies and Sandbox? marketing functions in India it was clear that the time was Envisioned by the product and marketing teams in right to bring the Sandbox to this part of the sub-continent.” Mountain View, USA in 2008, the Google Creative Sandbox has been enhanced and promoted across geographies by Commenting on the prospects Google sees in the introducing local flavours.