Vodafone-Idea merger: Advertising’s loss

By the time you read this piece, you might also read that Vodafone and Idea have merged into one mammoth telecom company. The implications of the merger will be manifold: job losses (as duplication will be weeded out), efficiencies (as the new entity takes stock of common resources such as towers), added reach (as the new entity will take advantage of the unique reach of each of the original partners) and so on.  But the tragedy will be the loss of one (or both) of the extraordinary brands built over decades and the entertaining and effective communication built by Vodafone (in its various avatars, from Hutchison Max, Orange and Vodafone) and Idea.  

From the days of the heady and soft ‘You and I’ campaign when the pug first said hello to viewers, to the extraordinary ZooZoos, peppered with some offbeat films for cobranded Vodafone-Facebook and Vodafone-BlackBerry, the Ogilvy-Vodafone partnership has built a formidable brand while delighting consumers – even when the consumer was unhappy with the coverage or service from the telco. The ‘What an Idea, Sirjee’ campaign by Lowe Lintas is the foundation that built the brand Idea Cellular, featuring Abhishek Bachchan in his most successful role to date. The exposure for Abhishek Bachchan in the Idea films is perhaps greater than his cumulative exposure in Bollywood films.

The new entity will, one presumes, be new. Which means that both brands will die – and, with the deaths, the advertising created thus far will die as well. That is a huge loss to advertising. The common thread that binds both the successful Vodafone and Idea work is the relationship that the two telcos built with their advertising agency partners. In both instances, the advertising agencies were trusted partners in brand-building, extensions of the marketing teams in these companies. It is this spirit of partnership that allowed Ogilvy the license (and the budgets) to create the ZooZoos and for Lowe to take the ‘movement’ route with What an Idea, Sirjee.

The marketing teams at both Vodafone and Idea have changed many times over the years, but it is the continuity of the relationship with their agencies that has allowed them to create impactful advertising despite the changes. Who will be responsible for the advertising after the merger? Both Ogilvy and Lowe have invested heavily in resources on these accounts – and been remunerated handsomely as well. The loss of an account such as this will be a blow, both in terms of revenue and in the opportunity to do good work. Will the work go to Ogilvy? To Lowe? Or will it be shared, in a new and unusual arrangement?

Or will the new entity call a pitch and invite a host of other agencies to present their ideas? We have no answers, but we can say that the new advertising will be different from what either of the agencies has created so far – and that a new marketing team will emerge at Vodafone-Idea. What the new entity needs to do is to look hard at the value that resides in the relationships between the erstwhile companies and their agencies – and not waste this wealth.

While Ogilvy and Lowe undoubtedly know how to create communication, there is an additional value. Having spent, in both cases, more than two decades with their clients, Ogilvy and Lowe have a rich understanding of the mobile services business and the consumers of this business.

They know what makes these consumers tick, what makes them smile and what makes them write cheques. And they can replace the pug, create another ZooZoo and get another great idea, sirjee.

Anant Rangaswami is the editor of Storyboard, the advertising, media and marketing show on CNBC TV18.