You have seen the Idea advertising campaign where four friends overcome the language barrier with the help of their mobile phones. Now you can attempt the same without being a polyglot, courtesy the Idea Language Champion, an online reality show which tests your ability to crack a range of online tasks and quizzes in different languages through the power of social media networking.
The online reality show is the mobile service provider’s attempt to extent the television campaign to the digital medium. As a part of its ‘Kya Idea Hai, Sirji’ positioning, Idea Cellular had recently launched the ‘Break the language barrier’ campaign which shows how four people travelling to different parts of the country are able to communicate in the languages they are unfamiliar with, through their mobile phones–an idea provided by a tea vendor, who happens to be Idea’s brand ambassador Abhishek Bachchan. The online show titled ‘Idea Language Champion’ on http://www.idealanguage .co.in aims to demonstrate the same via online networking.
?Like all the past digital initiatives around our ?What an Idea, Sirji? campaigns, we have taken the campaign thought and created an engagement programme for the audience in the digital media space,? said Himanshu Kapania, director-operations, Idea Cellular, explaining the idea behind the campaign. “We have always focused on consumer engagement in the digital space and developed ideas which are very participative and viral in nature.?
The contest allows users to gather information from their friends, using various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Idea Cellular plans to take the show to the real world where the finalists will be sent out to four different locations in the country. Each user will be given an Idea connection to network with their friends and document their quest. The winner would be chosen on the basis of the support received on Idea’s microsite/Facebook page.
How does the online show compliment the current campaign? Said Kapania, ?Idea?s campaign suggests that one does not need to know the language to be able to communicate with others. With a little help from friends one can bridge the language barrier. The same campaign thought has been carried forward in the digital medium as well.?
?The finalists of Idea Language Champion would be taken to an unfamiliar city where they will have to communicate in the local language. They can take help from friends using social media platforms. It will not only compliment the core campaign thought, but take it ahead by actually demonstrating the implementation of the idea,? he added.
Earlier, brands like Tata Tea and Lipton had made substantial efforts to extend their television campaigns to the digital medium to directly interact with the consumers. While Tata Tea created the Jaago Re website which provided ample opportunities to the user to engage with the brand, Lipton created what is touted to be the largest online puzzle, Stay Sharp.
Nitin Mathur, director-marketing, Yahoo! India says ?marketers with strong understanding of their existing and future consumers are aggressively adopting digital advertising” to better connect with their young customers who are increasingly spending more time online.
