We the Write stuff.

Ello all
Around the time IPL2 began (Respect: Deccan and all it’s fans, include the intoxicated ones on this blog…) Vodafone launched a brand new ad campaign. The ads all consisted of these incoherent sterilized-humpty-dumpty characters. They’re cute, weird, laugh maniacally and tend to hurt each other. They are Zoozoos. It’s interesting to know that while they seem animated they’re in fact humans in spongy suits.
All I have to say, is well done Vodafone. O&M were told to come up with a consistent brand story and the results they’ve produced are absolutely amazing. Every single ad is short and bizarre and manages to explain yet another feature of Vodafone. Airtel, Aircel, Idea, and LOOP might as well walk away now, because I honestly think this could be the campaign of the last few years. The campaign is spread across the usual radio, TV, print mediums but the handling of the online campaign is genius.
Instead of randomly sending trite messages to Facebook users, the Zoozoos have their own page and subsequently over 250,000 fans. That’s two and half lakhs! Beyond that, not only are bloggers everywhere writing about them (is this irony?) people are making fan sites for the funny looking characters.
Thousands upon thousands of people are trying to see ‘which Zoozoo they are’ and even more are posting comments on the characters’ wall. Not just that, people are tagging each other in Zoozoo photographs and the buzz is nothing short of immense. Sure, there’s plenty of Anti Zoozoo groups but the amazing thing is, within a few weeks, they’re small characters living in a Vodafone colored world telling you Vodafone colored things and lakhs of people dig it.
To me this is incredible, because in this country for some absurd reason, we do not understand the idea of a Mascot.
Take Choco’s. Every kid’s ideal chocolate breakfast. It has no competition and as a result, it has NO ambition. A few years ago they got rid of the big cuddly bear and replaced him with the Coco Pops monkey. FOR NO APPARENT REASON! It’s ridiculous, and even if they felt they needed a change in image, why do they care so little about the monkey? Next time you’re eating Choco’s, count how many fingers there are on the monkey’s hands. I’ll help you, he has seven. That’s right seven. Three on one hand and four on the other! FOR NO APPARENT REASON! And this isn’t a Hrithik type love your deformity ploy, oh no, they just don’t seem to give a fuck. That is NOT even handed treatment. (Sorry…had to).
For years now sports events have had mascots which you’d get with a happy meal at Mcdonald’s, yet who can honestly tell me they cared about or even FOR any of these mascots? The Olympics had those weird attempts at bears. And sure enough, this year we have Shera the ‘friendly tiger’! He’s a generic, probably ill fed tiger who deserves to be no more than a side character in Tinkle Digest. Yet another event will pass and nobody will give a shit about the tiger who’s only character claim is that he’s ‘friendly.’
Where’s our Tony the Tiger or our Marlboro Man? It’s depressing to see how little the organizers care about their mascot, but for now I’m glad we have the Zoozoos. All I can hope for now, is that other firms and companies will see the impact of their success, and hopefully, say to themselves ‘Let’s have a mascot who’s more than paint and plastic’.