The arrival of Airtel on India’s telecom scene in 1995 undoubtedly marked the birth of mobile telephony in the country. Over the years, as the category got flooded with more players, the brand has tried its best to woo consumers by backing its services with many ad campaigns. Some worked, some did not.

Cut to 2010 (the year of 3G), Airtel is out with a new look and a promise of bringing consumers close to all they love. Recently, the brand got JWT on board as its creative agency, putting an end to its long association with Rediffusion Y&R. Rohit Nautiyal of FE talks to Mohit Beotra, head ? brand and media, Airtel, JWT Delhi’s executive business director Maneesh Rangra and chief creative officer Adrian Miller to find out the story behind the brand’s new avatar. Edited excerpts.

?People will consume more of data-enabled services?

What?s the main objective behind refreshing brand Airtel now?

We are changing the way we do our business. Airtel is going international with presence in 21 countries in Asia and Africa. These countries have a younger skew and will soon see a data explosion (as we call it) in the next few years. Though a major part of our revenue comes from voice, the future will see people consuming a lot of data enabled services through mobile phones. The business will shift in this direction with 3G emerging as an enabling technology.

In order to signal this change, we decided to change ourselves by coming across as a more vibrant, dynamic and accessible brand.

With the new positioning the brand seems to be taking to the emotional route in a big way. Was this missing earlier as a result of too many celebs endorsing the brand?

Not really. Celebrities have been a part of our advertising and this will continue. Now, the brand comes with a new promise of bringing customers closer to a host of services in education, entertainment, commerce, banking, health, etc.

The new logo is red ? a colour overused in telecom. There seems to be a similarity between the new Airtel logo and that of Vodafone and Videocon. How do you see it?

The new logo has been done by Brand Union, a London-based brand agency. Our brief to the agency was ? though we are talking about change, let us not lose anything that consumers feel is core to our brand. As part of its research, the agency found out that consumers associate the colour ‘red’ with Airtel more than any other colours (black and white) present in our previous logo. While ‘a’ in lowercase as a symbol has been used to get a distinct visual identity, the use of a lowercase ‘a’ in the brand name conveys our humility despite being a market leader.

What other channels are being used to connect with consumers?

We understand the need to reach consumers in an engaging way across all mediums. For instance, as part of an innovation at bowling alleys in malls, as the player throws the ball, it travels through the wooden surface creating the new logo. We have done a train wrap with Airtel branding on the South bound Rajdhani Express that starts from Delhi. We have also started branded buses in youth hangout zones across metros which will work as 3G experience zones. Besides, activations in malls will be rolling out in15 cities across the country.

We have launched an online consumer contest called The Name Game. As part of this, we are asking the consumers to name the new logo. Linking this further to our brand idea ? Dil Jo Chahe Paas Laye ? we are asking the participants one thing they wish to be close to.

?The positioning had to be future-centric?

What were the challenges faced by the agency in zeroing in on the new positioning?

Maneesh Rangra: Airtel as a brand straddles a huge gamut of products and services that go beyond the traditional realm of mobile telephony. It was imperative for the new positioning, to capture in its essence, this wide gamut of experiences that brand brings to its consumers. The positioning was also not just about here and now, it had to be future-centric and consistent with what one is aiming towards in the times to come. To that extent, we defined the role of technology for Airtel as not just a mere bridge for the physical distance, but as a brand that helps bridging the emotional distance between consumers and what they love.

What kind of research was undertaken for this?

Rangra: None. We just did a concept test with the final articulation. We conducted two sessions – One on strategy and the other on creative – where we invited all our experts from India as well as from other parts of the world. The client was embedded completely into both the sessions. So the gap between what the market needed, what the client wanted and what we proposed was minimal.

Please share the experience of working on the two films.

Miller: We shot both the films in Prague and did the post production with MPC in London. The film titled ‘Endless Goodbye’ needed a romantic European feel. It was a long shoot and quite a technical one. The finished film looks rather simple, but we had to use motion control and body doubles for all the transition scenes. Philippe Andre of Independent Films in London did a fantastic job in direction. The entire commercial depended on getting the right performances, the right balance of emotion. For the music we bought a track from one of the world?s most famous pianists, Ludovico Einaudi.

For the ‘Street Performer’ film, we roped in Harihar Dash of India?s Got Talent- Khoj 2 and got him Kanye West?s choreographer to work with. He did a great job too.