Campaign: Sirf Cable Nahi, Life Badl

Brand: Airtel Digital TV

Company : Bharti Airtel

Agency: JWT

The Campaign

Two ads have been released as part of this campaign. The first ad opens on a young man holding a twisted part of a wheel who tells his friend Sheel that his car has met with an accident. Sheel, who is lolling about on the sofa watching television, nochalantly says that these things happen. The third friend then declares him the ?most chilled out friend? even as the other friend says that till a few days back Sheel would freak out every time the cable connection got disrupted. Sheel would then demand that his engineer friends repair the cable connection. He remembers how Sheel would over-react when the cricket score was not legible on the screen. The cleaning lady pips in to say that Sheel would slam the phone in case the cable guy did not pick up the phone to take a complaint. However, all these changed when they switched over to Airtel Digital with the Airtel service engineer responding immediately to any calls. And that was the secret behind Sheel?s new found patience. The ad ends with the three friends watching a soccer match on TV, and even as one of the friends spills hot tea over Sheel in the excitement of the moment, Sheel is a happy guy. The message ?Quick Service? flashes on the screen followed by the tagline ?Sirf cable nahi, life badlo? (Don?t just change your cable connection, change your life), with the Airtel Digital TV logo.

The second ad focuses on another feature of Airtel Digital TV. The ad opens with two girls calling out to the neighbourhood nerd, a boy named Monish who loves to study. However, this wasn?t always the case reveals his mother with his books ending up at the ragpicker?s and Monish coming out with all sort of excuses to avoid his exams. Exasperated, his Dad finally cuts the cable TV connection and switches to an Airtel Digital TV connection and Monish?s transformation to a studious boy happens. With the help of Airtel Digital?s interactive learning programme iExam, Monish discovers a love for studies. The shot cuts to Monish?s beaming mother as her son fiddles with the remote and the screen flashes ?iExam interactive learning?. The ad ends with the tagline and the Airtel Digital TV logo flashes.

Our Take

This ad campaign is timed to take advantage of the July deadline (which has now been pushed to November) for all cable operators in the four metros to switch to digital transmission. The direct-to-home (DTH) players in the country are now looking at maximising this opportunity to create top of the mind recall for their brands.

The Airtel Digital TV campaign sends out the message that television content can shape a perspective, define a point of view and when it?s really powerful, it can change your life. Therefore the tagline: Sirf cable nahi, life badlo. At the same time, it does seem a little late in the day to talk about the brand?s various features. Viewers may remember that Tata Sky had brought out a series of ads with brand ambassador Aamir Khan talking about these basic features a few years back, with much more punch. So, there is a sense of deja vu. Even Airtel?s own ads have talked about functional features such as clarity in a more entertaining and engaging way. Perhaps using Airtel Digital?s original brand ambassadors Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan would have pepped up the message. In that sense, the second ad is better than the first one. While it may be necessary at this juncture to reinforce the advantages that DTH offers, whether this campaign would be able to create a preference for Airtel over other DTH brands therefore remains to be seen.

Airtel has also taken this opportunity to showcase a new logo for its digital television services. While red is the brand colour for Airtel, this campaign introduces a secondary colour, blue, to make digital TV creative distinctive from the rest of Airtel creatives. A modern Airtel Digital logo is presented along with the Airtel logo.

Ratings: **