Idea walks the talk

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It added an average 1.3 mn subscribers a month over the last one year — 30% more than its run-rate in 2007-08

‘Walk, When you Talk’ has prompted many viewers to approach the Indian Customer Complaints Forum on the ground that walking while talking can lead to accidents, but Idea Cellular isn’t complaining. The country’s fifth largest telecom services operator is busy enjoying all the attention the campaign has drawn.

The latest campaign, which is the fifth in the ‘What an Idea, Sirjee!’ series, was launched last month and its success has led Idea to conduct ‘walkathons’ all over the country, introduce theme ring tones and launch a website , which suggests that if ‘Talktime’ equals ‘Walktime’ for mobile users, fitness scores can go up.

Lowe Lintas India Chairman and Creative head R Balakrishnan (popularly known as Balki), who has conceptualised the ‘What an Idea…’ series, says he sees little point in the protests. “These campaigns are based on fun themes. I don’t expect the whole world to follow it, even though I expect everyone to appreciate it,” Balki says.

The ‘Walk, When you Talk’ campaign is about a universal insight that as people spend almost 1.5 hours on an average on the phone every day, walking while talking might be a solution to solve the fitness problem.

Idea executives say the positioning of the campaign is simple: brand building through stirring social conscience. Chief Marketing Officer Pradeep Shrivastava says the top three telecom operators have the same kinds of products, services and tariffs, and Idea saw no point in treading the same path. “We decided that our campaigns should be around ideas that have the power to change the society we live in,” he says.

In a highly-commoditised market like telecom, the ‘What an idea…’ campaigns, featuring actor Abhishek Bachhan, has helped make that differentiation and created the right brand image, Shrivastava says.

So while the first ad in the series showed Bachchan (playing the role of a village sarpanch) replacing people’s names with 10-digit mobile numbers, the underlying theme was an attack against caste wars since numbers don’t belong to any particular caste or religion. The other campaigns – on education for all (classes taken over mobile phones; a parent pleading with a principal for a child’s admission), democracy (say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ over mobile phones for a political decision) and communication for all (a deaf woman using a mobile phone as a guide during her visit to the Taj) – were all aimed at projecting the Idea brand as a socially responsible corporate citizen.

“Primarily, we are celebrating the power of an idea, which is our tagline – ‘An idea can change your life – but we are also making subtle attempts at brand building. For example, in the ‘Walk, When You Talk’ ad, people are shown talking inside buildings, vehicles and highways, a reference to our strong network,” Shrivastava says.

While Idea declined to specify its advertisement spends, Spatial Access Solutions says Bharti Airtel was the highest telecom services spender in 2008 with a total outgo of Rs 976 crore. This was followed by Vodafone (Rs 750 crore), Reliance (Rs 669 crore), Tata Teleservices (Rs 625 crore), BSNL (Rs 445 crore) and Idea Cellular (Rs 408 crore).

Idea, which started operations in 1995 as Birla Communications, underwent several name changes, and till early 2000 was operating under various names such as Birla-Tata-AT&T, RPG Cellular (in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh), ‘AT&T’ (in Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat) and ‘Tata Cellular’ in Andhra Pradesh.

The need for a common high-voltage campaign was felt when the company decided to consolidate all its business under the Idea Cellular brand in 2002.

As part of its overall brand building efforts, the company also advertised heavily during the showbiz event IIFA, Indian Premier League (IPL), Idea Star Singer and Idea Sa Re Ga Ma among others.

Idea is also taking its ‘Walk When You Talk’ campaign out-of-home (OOH) for which it has roped in 141 Wall Street (a division of Bates 141).

The campaign has worked for Idea Cellular in consolidating its position as the fifth largest operator in the country with presence across 17 circles and a subscriber base of around 47 million.

The company has managed a 45 per cent-plus growth in revenues for the last two successive financial years. It added an average 1.3 million subscribers a month over the last one year, 30 per cent more than its run-rate in 2007-08 and double that of 2006-07.

In established circles such as Kerala, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, Idea is the top mobile operator in terms of the subscriber base. In Andhra Pradesh, Idea’s network presence has gone up from just 300 towns three years ago to 3,500 now.

The ‘Sirjees’ that the company addresses in its campaigns seem to be taking Idea’s calls seriously.