Vodafone trades off F1 branding for a network among SMEs

F1 branding is a window to the world. The operator is using it to reach a fragmented customer base

The Formula One (F1) India Grand Prix is still over a month away, starting in October. Brands are readying their plans to get you as close to the tarmac-burning action as possible. But if you had enterprises, and not individuals, as your audience, how would you rope them in for the carnival? Booking plum seats for clients is cliched.

Vodafone India, which is a late-entrant in the enterprise solutions space as a telecom partner, is offering a slice of branding space available to it as part of its global sponsorship deal to another company, all to actually win over clients.

Harnessing its global branding sponsorship of McLaren, one of the front-runner teams in the sport, it is offering small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a chance to brand McLaren's racing cars for free. One business could see its name right under the driver's helmet on a car, a spot where all eyes are trained during a race.

Like many of its peers, Vodafone has been eyeing growth from SMEs. However, reaching out to this segment is a daunting task, as the sector is hugely unorganised and fragmented across the country. So, instead of setting off to look for its customers, it is getting them to congregate through this branding initiative.

"Vodafone Group is a title sponsor and total communications partner for McLaren Racing, one of the best racing teams in the world; Vodafone India had the opportunity to select any SME to give it the chance to put its brand on the race cars during the race in India," says Naveen Chopra, director of enterprise and carrier business of Vodafone India.

As part of the global sponsorship deal, each Grand Prix country's operating company gets to select any small business' logo to be put on a race car when it races in that country. The Indian arm will have a TV show to select the lucky SME. The entire process of selecting the winner of the contest will become the part of a televised series.

"Most markets give this space to a random small business. In India, we select a company through the show and hence, provide the space to a deserving business who is working towards driving into the big league," says Chopra. The company has been running the contest for the last two years.

To get the coveted space, participants have to apply with their business plans. The shortlisted participants will get to participate in a television reality show where they have to present their strategies for growth.

The winner, an SME, will earn global viewership as the audience for the event is international. "The winner company gets to expose its brand to over 25-50 million TV viewers across the globe, which is estimated to be a global brand exposure worth over ¤100,000 (Rs 86 lakh)," informs Chopra.

While one SME will be busy basking in the glory, Vodafone will get to network with SMEs with sound business plans and growth paths that have the potential to become its clients. The strategy seems to be working. The number of participants for the contest has increased from 80,000 participants in the first year to 300,000 last year.

"This is one of our path-breaking initiatives to penetrate into the SME community, making significant inroads. This activity helps us to build relationships, engage with customers to showcase our enterprise product range, understand their requirements and provide customised offerings," says Chopra.

Vodafone invites participants across ten zones, to demarcate the areas from which it can attract SMEs who could later become its clientele. Vodafone has decided to streamline the size of SMEs that it invites. For the first two years, it had defined SMEs as those with revenues between Rs 10-250 crore. This time around it has upped the ante.

With the contest for the current year, it decided to go with only those SMEs which have an annual revenue between Rs 100-500 crore. The company has advertised for registrations for the contest, which will start mid-September.

Vodafone Business Services, the enterprise arm of the telecom major, believes that SMEs will drive the corporate business. Bharti Airtel, an arch rival, has already built its enterprise business base over many years. Vodafone set up its enterprise business as late as 2010.

Its offerings include mobility solutions like mobile e-mail and Internet, remote connectivity through its high-speed technology like 3G. It also has wireline voice and data solutions that offer secure connectivity.

SMEs also look at automation through machine-to-machine solutions, along with conferencing and collaboration solutions to connect employees across geographies.

Chopra says that SMEs who opt for such enterprise solutions hail from banking and financial services, pharma, FMCG and the retail sectors.

Most SMEs tend to be reluctant to embrace and spend on technology, making solution providers such as operators resort to different strategies.

Vodafone has to go an extra mile to engage with them. It chose to trade-off its branding space for F1 to get them closer to its own business in an effort to drive its business growth at F1 speed.