Vodafone Blue does it in Broadway style

Crafted by O&M, the TVC is set to break new ground after the ZooZoo's campaign.

Neha Saraiya | Delhi | September 13, 2011

Are you a Facebook aficionado? Are you one who sleeps, eats, drinks and literally lives on Facebook, updating your status every leap second? For such Facebook lovers, Vodafone Essar last week unveiled a phone, named Vodafone Blue, dedicated solely for an affordable integrated mobile Facebook experience.

To support the launch, the telco has rolled a campaign created by O&M wherein the service provider has chosen the Broadway theatrical style to woo audiences. The ad depicts the life led by a boy symbolising the youth of today, who spends his every waking moment on Facebook by indulging in activities like status update, posting comments and playing games.

About the choice of using a Broadway musical, Rajiv Rao, National Creative Director, Ogilvy India, said, “We always try to find fresh ways of doing things. We had this idea sometime back in our mind but we were not getting the right plot. When the company told us about this phone, we thought of using the Broadway idea. People are aware of Facebook and it is the biggest thing that has happened in the recent past. For a Facebook lover this phone is a boon, thus we thought of launching it in a big manner.”

Once the Broadway idea was finalised for the commercial, the creative team started penning the lyrics for the ad and created a rough draft for the shoot. The music composition, one of the major highlights of the commercial, has been done by Mikey. Surprisingly, he has also lent his voice to the musical piece.

“Everybody in our team contributed to the lyrics. It was a total legacy effort. While we were writing, we thought of various popular features and applications on Facebook that we could include in the commercial. In the end we picked up key features that not only go well with the entire flow but are also visually attractive. Thus key elements like Farmville, Mafia Wars, picture posting, friend requests and profile checks were zeroed in on.”

Although the TVC was shot in a giant-sized studio in Cape Town, South Africa, over just two days, it involved around two months of hard work and toil before the final cut was ready. As a pre-production effort, a troupe of dancers rehearsed for about two weeks, and the director of the ad, Prakash Verma from Nirvana Films, conceived and changed a lot of situations in the film. In fact, the creative agency was also busy writing the lyrics even before the final shot of every scene.

Rao also mentioned that the protagonist of the TVC is an American model, who was selected by the production house from among various dancers and was especially flown from New York to Cape Town for the shoot.

But capturing a film in true Boradway style was a Herculean task. As Nirvana's Verma said, “To do a musical Broadway in the commercial space was a huge challenge set. We had to fix everything in that given space, simultaneously squeezing the feature and application in two minutes. I had to spend month and a half just to prepare for it. In fact, I started to look at details almost two months back when the commercial was not even finalised with us.”

Besides the shooting, the post-production of the ad was done at Cape Town at an agency called Platypus.

Commenting about the media mix of the campaign, Anuradha Aggarwal, Vice-president, Brand Communication and Insights, Vodafone India, said, “The campaign is a fresh look and never-before peep into the life of a Facebook lover. There will be a very large surround campaign around the TVC that has been launched on Facebook.  As of now we are generating leads on Facebook for Vodafone Blue and will be using both traditional and digital media.”

Kapil Arora, Country Head, Team Vodafone, Ogilvy India, said, “It's an integrated campaign. We are doing a lot of on-ground activities, but the main medium will be Internet and TV. On Facebook, the film is up on the Vodafone Zoozoo page and people have shown an interest in it.”

The agency is also trying to gain mileage in the online front by launching an app on Facebook. Winner will get Vodafone Blue handsets.

The TVC will go on-air in October.

Credits:

• Client : Vodafone, India
• National Creative Director : Rajiv Rao
• Creative Director : Elizabeth Dias
• Creative : Rajiv Rao, Elizabeth D, Savio A, Resham D, Umma S, Mayuresh W, Ashish S, Sandesh K, Calvin A, C V Saju and Preeti J.
• National Account Head : Kapil Arora
• Account Management : Sarang W, Chatak V, Vishal K
• Director : Prakash Varma
• Producer : Sneha & Lisa
• Production House: Nirvana Films

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