Campaign : ?Think Hatke? –
Get Paid for Incoming
Calls
Brand : Virgin Mobile
Company : Tata Teleservices Ltd
Agency : Bates 141
The Campaign
Virgin Mobile has recently roped in actors Ranbir Kapoor and Genelia D?Souza as brand ambassadors and has also introduced GSM services. The latest series of commercials show Ranbir Kapoor devising new ways of making people call him. From putting his number on the poster to sticking it on the Beetle car and going to the extent of even morphing the picture of a beautiful girl alongside his and putting it up on a networking site. The result: He is innnundated with calls. And for every call he earns money. The viewer gets the details on how much he earns per minute on incoming and how much he pays, followed by the Virgin mobile logo and the tag line, ?Now in GSM?. The campaign ends with Ranbir using all the money earned to sponsors long chats with his girl-friend at night.
Our Take
This is the first time a celebrity has been used by Virgin Mobile in its TV commercials. Perhaps it was time. As telecom market gets extremely competitive with new players entering or planning to enter, brand recognition and recall becomes challenging. That?s where Ranbir Kapoor delivers. On one hand, Ranbir?s popularity among the youth, which is the target group of the mobile company, is very high. There is a certain resonance that can be found between the brand and the celebrity.
On the other, he might not be a Shah Rukh Khan yet, but he?s one of the most sought after actors in the tinsel town. The brand image gets a boost with this association. In terms of the storyline, it is quirky and the viewer gets the message. To that extent the ad is successful. But is it something new? Alas no! Virgin Mobile?s ?think hat ke? campaign has been around for some time and in its earlier commercials the message of getting paid for incoming calls was successfully conveyed.
In comparison, the earlier commercials have had better storylines and humor. The only difference was they used unknown faces. Replacing Ranbir with any other actor will not make any difference on the creative per se. In a nutshell, the commercial banks only on star power.