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In this special Brand Equity report that’s part of our ‘30 Years Celebration’ coverage, we check into the past and the present to better understand Airtel’s strategy to make new friends and keep old ones. And perhaps glean some lessons along the way.
Shedding the ‘Dad’s brand’ perception
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In a recent interview with Brand Equity, Shashwat Sharma<\/a>, chief marketing officer, Bharti Airtel<\/a>, India and South Asia, said that they are working towards creating a future-ready brand. “As we move towards the era of digital transformation, we want to strengthen our equity amongst youth and as an innovation thought leader,” he said. The brand equity that Sharma speaks of took a while to amass.
Bharat Bambawale<\/a>, founder, BBA was Airtel’s global brand director from 2011 to 2013. He recalls that during his stint the brand’s main challenge was to reconnect with the youth. Back then, Vodafone<\/a> had made considerable inroads, and Airtel was considered the “Dad’s brand”. He tells BE, “With mobility revenue shares more or less stable (remember this is pre-Jio era), data was the emerging battleground and youth preference for Vodafone<\/a> was a risk to future revenue. The immediate priority, in marketing speak, was to create brand relevance and esteem with youth.”
In 2011, when he joined Airtel, Taproot Dentsu’s ‘Har Ek Friend Zaroori’ campaign broke and made quite an impact. He remembers, “Working with Agnello Dias<\/a> and Piyush Raghani, I extended ‘Har Friend’ into 10-15 online films. These were handcrafted to be creatively braver than what mass TV allowed to create a buzz with youth.” When Bambawale worked with Dias and filmmaker Ram Madhvani<\/a> in 2012 on ‘Jo Mera Hai Woh Tera Hai’ campaign, he felt it was the right time for another “anthemic” and big production led campaign. Airtel’s “data push” began then. Alongside, campaigns for Airtel’s sponsorship of the Indian Formula 1 and partnership with Manchester United further enhanced youth appeal.
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He recalls the brand’s success in African market. “Across the waters, I worked with Nandu Buty and the Ogilvy Africa team on ‘Padi a Good Thing O’, Airtel’s Nigerian youth anthem that became the most successful Airtel commercial in Africa.”
In India, it took a few years for Airtel to shed its “Dad’s brand” image, with a concerted marketing push led by ‘big idea’ led campaigns.
AR Rahman’s Memory Lapse: Ramanuj Shastry<\/a>, co-founder and director of independent agency Infectious, shares his memory of working on the Airtel account while at Rediffusion<\/a>
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This was September 2008. After wrapping the mega shoot in sweltering Delhi for an Airtel Half Marathon blockbuster TV ad, me and my Joint-CCO, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, (both were at Rediffusion that time) board a flight to Chennai to brief A.R. Rahman for the music. We meet the soft-spoken, humble, ever-smiling genius, who appears distracted as he hears our brief, sees the offline, nods ‘got it’ and walks away humming.
Sagar and I exchange a slightly perplexed glance, which means ‘God moves in his mysterious ways, his miracles to perform’, and head back to Mumbai. Three days later the music arrives by mail. It’s a total disaster. But who is going to bell the cat and tell A.R. Rahman that? Who else but me? I shudder, ask forgiveness of the almighty and call him. I am still preparing to break the news as gently to him as possible when he suddenly asks, “You didn’t like the music!” Unprepared, I say “No!” “Why!” He asks. And I blurt out “I don’t know, sir! ... It’s very Kenny G!” There is a deafening silence on the line as the enormity of what I just said hits me. I am beginning to sweat a little when he says in an even tone “Okay, come the day after!”
I arrive at his studio on the appointed evening (Rahman Sahab prefers working at night) and wait till one o’clock. No meeting. I head back to the hotel. Same story the next day. Meanwhile, I am spending quality time bonding with the ‘who’s who’ of the music Industry<\/a> - Daler et al, who are also waiting for an audience with the great one.
On the third night at one o’ clock, I am summoned by Rehman Rahman. He leads me to his studio and plays me the revised composition. It’s brilliant. I get goosebumps listening to it even today. “Like it?” He asks. “It’s brilliant” I gush. “Hmm!” He says thoughtfully “These two chaps from the agency briefed me... One dark chap (me) and one bald chap (Sagar) what they were saying I didn’t get only!” I realise he doesn’t remember me at all, so I chirped in relief “Tch Tch... they know nothing, sir! I am telling you this is brilliant!” He smiles and walks away. I heave a sigh of relief and call Sagar and the client and share the good news. Sagar and I still laugh about it.
The Hoarding That Was Almost Lost: Sandeep Goyal<\/a>, chairman of Mogae Media<\/a>, who helped launch Airtel during his tenure at Rediffusion, shares the story of the telecom brand’s first hoarding.
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December 1994. Just a few days shy of Christmas. That early winter morning, I was standing in Delhi with my colleague Rajendra Gupta at the Kalkaji-Nehru Place intersection supervising the first-ever hoarding of Airtel go up. There were no vinyls those days, hence the hoarding was being painted on-site, basically the elliptical Airtel logo with a ‘coming soon’ message.
When the job was almost done, we headed to the Bharti Airtel<\/a>’s office in an adjoining building in Nehru Place. Both Sunil Bharti Mittal and his younger brother Rajan were over the moon when I told them that the first hoarding was up. In fact, they could see it from a window in the building staircase. Both brothers literally rushed out. I could see their happiness on their faces. There was hugging and back-slapping. Much laughter. Many congratulations. Brand Airtel was ‘born’.
I was still at the tiny Bharti office when a few moments later Sunil hollered out to me, “Hey! Those guys are taking our hoarding down!” Sure enough, I rushed to the window and saw the hoarding was being pulled down. Sunil was very agitated. Rajan, anxious and angry. I ran down 18 floors, and sprinted to the hoarding site. An altercation resulted: the contractor had erected the Airtel hoarding, taken a picture to send to the agency, and was now replacing it with another one for a few days… a nasty practice of ‘two-timing’ clients. It took quite an effort (and some choicest Punjabi expletives) to get the Airtel hoarding up again! And Sunil and Rajan back to beaming smiles.
“I’m happy we had the creative maturity to not play to the galleries by showing off what we could do rather than doing what we should do”
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Agnello Dias, chief creative officer, co-founder and creative chairman, Taproot Dentsu DAN India, is the man that led some of Airtel’s most popular ad campaigns like ‘Har Friend Zaroori Hota Hai’ and ‘Jo Mera Hai Woh Tera Hai’. According to Dias, “Popular ad campaigns like Har Friend Zaroori are, I believe, more like getting a century on a good batting pitch against a weak bowling attack. Those were free-spirited, unfettered times for the whole category and affinity was the only attribute all players were chasing.”
The post-4G journey, so far, has been gratifying for Dias. He explains, “On a tricky pitch against tough, often unfair odds, to become part of a brand team navigating it through choppy, unpredictable waters is a rare opportunity for any creative person. It's a unique adrenalin rush to genuinely, truly partner a brand over such a long journey rather than just dress it up for an occasion. The rocksteady position that the brand enjoys today is due to the unwavering focus and deft strategic maneuvering of the brand team, with the hands-on leadership of Gopal.” Gopal Vittal is chief executive of Airtel. Dias adds, “I’m happy we had the creative maturity to not play to the galleries by showing off what we could do rather than doing what we should do.”
“To do what is right rather than what is good is always a tricky call as customer affinity and behavior have a love-hate relationship with each other. And as is evident from the mayhem in the category now, I believe we made the right choices more often than not,” he adds.
When It Rained on Airtel’s 4G Parade
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Award-winning filmmaker and founder and director of Equinox Films, Ram Madhvani, has been working on Airtel ad films for years now. Here he recalls how Sasha Chettri became “that 4G girl”. Madhvani tells Brand Equity, “The Airtel 4G launch introduced Sasha who became one of the rare examples of a brand not using a celebrity for its advertising. Sasha was a great casting option by our casting director Abhimanyu Ray but also it was Gopal Vital and Agnello Dias who spotted something in her that could represent the brand.” Besides, Airtel’s advertising blitzkrieg in 2015 almost guaranteed Chettri’s success in embedding herself into Indian consumers’ consciousness. According to Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), between September 19 and November 20, 2015, the Airtel 4G ads featuring Chettri were aired 54,406 times, together accounting for 1,708,586 seconds. As The Economic Times reported then, “In those two months she was on TV screens for almost 475 hours, or some 20 days.” With the relentless mega campaign, Airtel pretty much blew the competition out of the water.
Madhvani remembers a rather amusing episode from the first shoot of Airtel’s 4G campaign push. “In the first ad that we did for the 4G launch we were shooting in Delhi in the winter and had painted all the terraces and buildings and sure enough it rained and we were washed out. I’ve always said that whenever any part of the world needs rain send a shooting crew.”<\/body>","next_sibling":[{"msid":71416919,"title":"Tech Mahindra sees a return to days of larger deals","entity_type":"ARTICLE","link":"\/news\/tech-mahindra-sees-a-return-to-days-of-larger-deals\/71416919","category_name":null,"category_name_seo":"telecomnews"}],"related_content":[],"msid":71416964,"entity_type":"ARTICLE","title":"Decoding Airtel\u2019s strategy to make \u2018friends\u2019","synopsis":"As part of Brand Equity\u2019s 30 Years Celebration coverage, we speak to people who have been closely associated with the Indian telecom brand, Airtel, to glean learnings and lessons for the future.","titleseo":"telecomnews\/decoding-airtels-strategy-to-make-friends","status":"ACTIVE","authors":[{"author_name":"Priyanka Nair","author_link":"\/author\/479238843\/priyanka-nair","author_image":"https:\/\/etimg.etb2bimg.com\/authorthumb\/479238843.cms?width=100&height=100&hostid=268","author_additional":{"thumbsize":false,"msid":479238843,"author_name":"Priyanka Nair","author_seo_name":"priyanka-nair","designation":"Correspondent","agency":false}},{"author_name":"Amit Bapna","author_link":"\/author\/479216656\/amit-bapna","author_image":"https:\/\/etimg.etb2bimg.com\/authorthumb\/479216656.cms?width=100&height=100&hostid=268","author_additional":{"thumbsize":false,"msid":479216656,"author_name":"Amit Bapna","author_seo_name":"amit-bapna","designation":"Editor","agency":false}}],"Alttitle":{"minfo":""},"artag":"ETBrandEquity","artdate":"2019-10-03 09:15:51","lastupd":"2019-10-03 09:15:51","breadcrumbTags":["Airtel","Industry","bharti airtel","Vodafone","sunil mittal"],"secinfo":{"seolocation":"telecomnews\/decoding-airtels-strategy-to-make-friends"}}" data-authors="[" priyanka nair","amit bapna"]" data-category-name="" data-category_id="" data-date="2019-10-03" data-index="article_1">
在这个特殊的品牌资产报告,是我们“30年庆典”报道的一部分,我们检查到过去和现在,更好地理解Airtel结交新朋友并保持旧的战略。也许收集一些教训。
脱落的爸爸的品牌感知
在最近的一次采访中与品牌资产,Shashwat沙玛首席营销官Bharti Airtel、印度和南亚,说他们正在努力创建一个future-ready品牌。“当我们走向数字化转型的时代,我们要加强我们的股票在青年和作为一个创新的思想领袖,”他说。沙玛说的品牌资产积累需要一段时间。
巴拉特Bambawale创始人,BBA Airtel的全球品牌总监从2011年到2013年。他回忆说,在他的品牌面临的主要挑战是重温青春。当时,沃达丰(Vodafone)取得了相当大的进展,Airtel被认为是“爸爸的品牌”。他告诉,“行动或多或少稳定收入份额(记住这是pre-Jio时代),数据和青年偏爱新兴战场沃达丰(Vodafone)是一个未来的收入风险。市场营销说,当务之急是建立品牌与青年相关性和尊重。”
2011年,他加入了Airtel主根电通的Har Ek朋友Zaroori的竞选破了,留下了很深的影响。他记得,”处理Agnello迪亚斯和总裁Raghani,我延长“哈尔的朋友”到10 - 15在线电影。这些都是手工制作的是创造性比什么勇敢的大众电视允许与青年创建一个热点。“当Bambawale迪亚斯和导演工作Ram Madhvani在2012年“乔Mera海哇拉海”运动,他认为这是正确的时间为另一个“风”和大型生产领导活动。旅馆的“数据推送”开始。Airtel,活动的赞助印度f1和与曼联合作进一步加强青年的吸引力。
他回忆说在非洲市场品牌的成功。“整个水域,我曾与Nandu丁醇和奥美非洲团队的Padi一件好事啊,Airtel的尼日利亚青年国歌,成为最成功的旅馆商业在非洲。”
在印度,花了几年Airtel摆脱“爸爸的品牌”形象,与协同营销推动为首的“伟大的想法”活动。
基于“增大化现实”技术的拉赫曼的回忆:Ramanuj Shastry独立机构,创始人和主任传染性,分享他的记忆在Airtel账户时转播
这是2008年9月。包装后的大型射在闷热的德里Airtel半程马拉松轰动一时的电视广告,我和我的Joint-CCO Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar,(两人都在转播)钦奈到一架飞机短暂的境拉赫曼的音乐。我们见面说话温和,谦逊,瓦尔天才,出现心烦意乱,因为他听到我们短暂,看到离线,点头“是”,走开了嗡嗡作响。
Sagar和我交换有点困惑的目光,这意味着“上帝在他神秘的方式移动,他的奇迹来执行的,和回到孟买。三天后音乐通过邮件到达。这是一个彻头彻尾的灾难。但谁将铃猫告诉境拉赫曼呢?除了我还有谁?我不寒而栗,全能的,叫他请大家原谅。我还准备打破新闻尽可能温柔地给他当他突然问,“你不喜欢音乐!乐动扑克“措手不及,我说“不!”“为什么!”他问道。我脱口而出“我不知道,先生!… It’s very Kenny G!” There is a deafening silence on the line as the enormity of what I just said hits me. I am beginning to sweat a little when he says in an even tone “Okay, come the day after!”
晚上我到达他的工作室在任命(拉赫曼Sahab喜欢夜间工作),等到1点钟。没有会议。我回到酒店。第二天同样的故事。与此同时,我花费质量时间与音乐的“谁是谁”行业——Daler et al,也等待观众的伟大的一个。
在第三个晚上在一个点,我召集拉赫曼拉赫曼。他让我去他的工作室,扮演我修改后的作文。这是辉煌的。我今天听它甚至起鸡皮疙瘩。“喜欢吗?”他问道。“这是杰出的“我喷。“嗯!”他若有所思地说“这两个家伙从该机构向我……在一个漆黑的家伙(我)和一个秃头的家伙(Sagar)他们在说什么我没有得到!“我意识到他不记得我,所以我在鸣叫救援”业务信道总胆固醇… they know nothing, sir! I am telling you this is brilliant!” He smiles and walks away. I heave a sigh of relief and call Sagar and the client and share the good news. Sagar and I still laugh about it.
囤积的几乎失去了:Sandeep Goyal主席莫哈埃媒体,帮助启动Airtel在放大在他的任期内,股票电信品牌的第一个囤积的故事。
1994年12月。几天的圣诞节。冬天的清晨,我和我的同事站在德里Rajendra Gupta Kalkaji-Nehru地方交叉路口监督首次囤积Airtel上升。没有乙烯基,因此囤积被漆成现场,基本上椭圆Airtel标志“很快”的信息。
当工作几乎完成了,我们去了Bharti Airtel在隔壁的办公室在尼赫鲁地方建设。苏尼尔•巴帝•米塔尔和他的弟弟Rajan欣喜若狂当我告诉他们,第一个囤积了。事实上,他们可以看到它从建筑楼梯的一个窗口。两兄弟冲出来。我可以看到他们脸上的幸福。拥抱和赞扬声。笑得多。许多祝贺。品牌的旅馆是“出生”。
我还是小Bharti办公室当过了一会儿,苏尼尔我喊叫,“嘿!那些人正在我们囤积下来!“果然,我冲到窗前,看见囤积被拆除。苏尼尔非常激动。Rajan,焦虑和生气。我跑下18层,冲到囤积站点。争执导致:承包商建立Airtel囤积,采取图片发送给代理,现在换成另一个几天…一个令人讨厌的做法“不忠”的客户。花了相当的努力(和一些上等的旁遮普语咒骂)Airtel囤积起来!苏尼尔,Rajan回到喜气洋洋的微笑。
“我很高兴我们有创造性的成熟度不发挥画廊展示我们能做什么而不是做我们应该做的事情”
Agnello迪亚斯,首席创意官,联合创始人兼创意董事长主根电通丹印度,那个人是导致Airtel的一些最受欢迎的广告活动如“哈尔朋友Zaroori Hota海”和“乔Mera海哇拉海”。根据迪亚斯,“受欢迎的Har朋友Zaroori等广告宣传,我相信,更像是得到一个好的打击球场上一个世纪对疲软的保龄球攻击。这些自由奔放,无拘无束的时间整个类别和亲和力是唯一属性所有球员都追逐。”
post-4G旅程,到目前为止,已经满足了二叠纪。他解释说,“一个棘手的球场上对抗困难,经常不公平的优势,成为品牌的一部分团队导航通过波涛汹涌的,不可预知的水域为任何有创造性的人是一个难得的机会。真的是一个独特的肾上腺素,真正的伴侣一个品牌在这样一个长途旅行而不仅仅是着装的场合。rocksteady位置的品牌享有今天是由于品牌的坚定专注和灵活的战略机动团队,领导实践Gopal。“Gopal Vittal Airtel的首席执行官。迪亚斯补充说,“我很高兴我们有创造性的成熟度不发挥画廊展示我们能做什么,而不是做我们应该做的。”
“做正确的事,而不是什么是好一直是一个棘手的叫客户亲和力和行为彼此又爱又恨。和现在明显混乱的类别,我相信我们往往做出了正确的选择,”他补充道。
当下雨Airtel的4 g游行
获奖导演和创始人和主任Equinox电影,Ram Madhvani,多年来一直致力于Airtel广告电影了。在这里他回忆萨莎Chettri如何成为“4 g女孩”。Madhvani告诉品牌资产,“Airtel 4 g启动了萨沙成为一个罕见的例子,一个品牌不使用名人广告。萨沙是一个伟大的铸造选择由我们铸造苏哈塔雷主任还这是Gopal至关重要和Agnello迪亚斯在她发现了一些能代表品牌。“除此之外,旅馆的广告闪电战在2015年几乎可以保证Chettri成功的将自己嵌入到印度消费者的意识。根据印度广播受众研究委员会(巴克),9月19日至2015年11月20日Airtel 4 g广告Chettri播放54406次,占1708586秒。随着经济时报》报道,“在这两个月她在电视屏幕上近475小时,或一些20天。“无情的大型活动,Airtel几乎吹水的竞争。
Madhvani记得一段有趣的从第一个拍摄Airtel 4 g活动的推动。”在第一个广告,我们对4 g启动拍摄在德里在冬天,画所有的梯田和建筑物果然下雨了,我们被冲毁。我总是说,只要雨世界需要发送的任何部分船员开枪。”
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