Idea Cellular, the latest entrant to Mumbai?s telecom space, has painted the city yellow with its campaign theme, ?What an Idea!? Facing formidable rivals and stiff competition, Idea has launched a multi-crore outdoor ad blitzkrieg to make a big-bang entry into the metro. Idea?s out-of-home campaign boasts of 2,900 hoardings all over the metropolis and a lighting extravaganza in the business hub of Nariman Point.
The gala promotions, centered around the Air India building in Nariman Point alone would cost Idea t Rs 14 lakh a day. Depending on the impact, it could go on for several days.
The company wouldn?t reveal its promotional budget but the spend is expected to match similar wide-scale outdoor campaign created by rivals to create a splash in the metro. When Bharti Airtel entered Mumbai, it spent nearly Rs 16.5 crore on its outdoor campaign. Vodafone, in order to establish its transition from Hutch, splurged nearly Rs 23.6 crore on outdoors. Tata Indicom True-Paid spent around Rs 9.13 crore to woo Mumbaikars . Praveen Vadhera , country head for Wall Street, the out-of-home service division for Bates 141 India, which conceptualised the outdoor campaign for Idea, said that these figures were slightly inflated. ?However, the spends of Idea are at par with those of Vodafone and Airtel,? he added.
While Idea is mandated to grow through new subscribers, analysts feel it will have a tough task in creating a brand image similar to the existing players. Telecom analyst Romal Shetty, executive director, KPMG, said, ?Idea will face a tough time in tapping in the high-end consumers, as it lacks the brand image of Vodafone and Bharti Airtel.?
Anmol Dar, CEO, Superbrands, said, ?When it comes to Idea, it needs to have an absolute bouquet of novel ads to attract new subscribers.? As a corollary to this, he said when Hutch changed to Vodafone, it already had a huge subscriber base and much was written about in the press. Both these things formed an integral part to make Vodafone?s entry effective. ?It is important for Idea to link its backend technology to the front-end branding.?
Also, analysts add that Vodafone?s international image and Bharti Airtel?s pan-India imagery has made subscribers cling to these operators. Harish Bijoor, a brand domain expert and a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, said, ?Even when number portability comes into place, I don?t see much of the movement (from one service provider to another) happening.?
He feels Airtel and Vodafone are big players and dominant brands and therefore, subscribers are loyal to them. He also said while Airtel and Vodafone have the benefit of being a pan-India operator and an international player, respectively, ?Idea can link itself to the growth story of India.? The way India is a growing economy, Idea can position itself as a growing brand, he added.
