Virgin Mobile India: Building a youth brand in a youthful country

Dheeraj Sinha Warc Prize for Asian Strategy Shortlisted, 2011

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Virgin Mobile India: Building a youth brand in a youthful country Dheeraj Sinha Warc Prize for Asian Strategy Shortlisted, 2011

Virgin Mobile India: Building a youth brand in a youthful country

The Warc Prize for Asian Strategy is Asias first competition set up to reward brilliant strategic thinking in marketing. Marketers and agencies across Asia (excluding Pacific) were asked to submit case studies that demonstrated how insight and strategy had solved a business problem. The cases had to show what the problem was, the strategy that was developed, how that strategy was brought to life and the results it delivered. The Prize was judged by a panel of senior clients and agency-side strategy experts, using the following weighting: quality of insight (15%); quality of strategic thinking (40%); implementation (15%); performance against objectives (20%); lessons learned (10%). For more information on this annual prize, please visit www.warc.com/asiaprize. Campaign Details Advertiser: Virgin Mobile India Limited Agency: Bates 141 Brand: Virgin Mobile India Limited Campaign duration: March 2008 - May 2010 Country: India Media budget (USD): 5 - 10 million Channels used: Internet microsites, Newspapers (national), Newspapers (local), Online video, Out of home (all forms), Radio (national), Social media, Television (broadcast)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
India has one of the youngest populations in the world with a median age of 24 years. But if you are an Indian youth, you have nowhere to go, this paper claims. India is a market of middle-aged teenagers. Virgin Mobile, the telecommunications operator, realized that with much discussion of 40 as the new 20, Indias twenty-somethings were being squeezed out. The fact that there wasnt a mainstream youth brand in one of the youngest countries of the world was seen as an opportunity by the brand. By positioning itself as a partner in crime with Indian youth, Virgin Mobile gave Indian youth a brand they could call their own. This led to a campaign which celebrated the rule-breaking nature of Indian youth via cheeky TV and radio spots, and other social media and outdoor executions. As evidence of the success of its approach, this case study cites results such as the above market growth in Virgin Mobiles new subscriber growth and average revenue per user, as well as a high level of
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acquisition of subscribers among its target youth audience.

MARKET BACKGROUND AND BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Building a youth brand in a country with 200 million people in the age band of 15 24 years should be an easy task. Well not exactly if you realize that in todays India everyone and everything is young. In 1991 India started on the path of economic liberalization and de-regulation. It had been an economy closed within itself, and a society held back by scarcity suddenly opened up to the pangs of desire. It just so happens that the largest consuming class affected by this change is in the ageband of 25-45 yrs. Brands and marketers in India have found it easier to fuel the consumption glee of these 45 year olds, turning India into a market of middle-aged teenagers. Virgin Mobile entered India with a brief to become the telecoms brand for youth. A look around the category made it clear that the existing players in the market namely Vodafone (then Hutch), Airtel, Reliance, Idea and others werent any less youthful. All telecom brands were trying to be everything for everybody. Moreover there appeared to be a standard formula to make the brand look young make a group of youngsters jump in the sky and throw in a basketball or a guitar. The depiction of youth was less in motivation, more in imagery. This was the real opportunity for Virgin Mobile in India to give the Indian youth a brand that they can call their own; To connect Virgin mobile to the youth of India rather than Indian youthfulness Share of voice had become the formula to get share of mind telecoms brands were held together more by a desire to have high visibility rather than some deeper motivation. The category spent some $386m in 2008 which went up by 15% in 2009 (source: This Year Next Year report by GroupM). Media weight was not going to be in favour of Virgin mobile, the weight of its brand idea had to be. THE CHALLENGE The challenge therefore was twofold. We had to create a pure and differentiated brand for youth in the sea of young looking brands. And at the same time consistently deliver on the brand promise year on year. Objectives: ACQUIRE 1. New subscribers from the target segment (15-24 years) at a rate higher than the industry average over 2008-2009 2. High value youth subscribers as they are heavy users of value added services and SMS, to achieve an ARPU (average revenue per user) of 15-20% higher than the industry average in 2008-2009 3. 100 % increase in new subscriptions in 2010 BRAND
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1. Create high awareness for Virgin Mobile as a brand 2. Achieve a total brand awareness of at least 30% in the first 9 months of the launch 3. Establish differentiation on parameters a. A brand for the youth b. Does things differently and is innovative c. A unique Virgin wayof advertising 4. Dominate youth conversation in the online space

INSIGHT AND STRATEGIC THINKING

The Indian Youth is Retrieving Self Space Research, popular culture mapping and conversations with observers of change revealed that the youth in todays India have cracked a unique route between tradition and modernity. They are challenging many of the old tenets of the traditional Indian way of life. Whether its about a blatant craving for fame and money as against the traditional Indian belief that money corrupts, or edgier things like living-inbefore marriage, to having multiple relationships simultaneously or jumping jobs in six months. They have taken several status quo beliefs head on and have shattered them. But they are unique and clever in the way that they are doing so without any rebellion or without upsetting the apple cart. This is a generation whose expectations and desires from life are discontinuous. In many ways they are like the protagonist in the Bollywood blockbuster, Bunty Aur Babli. In the film, Bunty clearly refuses to go for the interview for a railway clerk position, his argument being that the job in question has neither respect, nor fame or fun - a shocking revelation to his father who has spent more than twenty years in the same job. But as a generation they are critically aware that they cannot achieve desires through linear ways. For this generation therefore, small shortcuts are OK, some manipulation and a little bit of meanness is almost essential. Evidently, this is not a generation which wants its persona to be whitewashed in goodness. The locus around which good or bad was measured has moved from outside (society) to inside (me). As a generation therefore, a little bit of bad is actually good for them. They do not need empowerment or liberation of any kind. The need for this generation is a certain legitimization of their way of life. Who Else but a Brand Like Virgin? Its not that this new way of youths life was hidden from anybody in the society. But there was a social discomfort in facing it. Virgin is a courageous brand, its unafraid of bringing out whats been brushed under the carpet by others. In the defined social and category context it looked like it was the destiny of Virgin Mobile as a brand to bring legitimacy to the new ways of youth life. Virgin Mobile Exhorts Indian Youth to Bypass the Firewall of Sanctions
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Virgin Mobile recognizes that todays discontinuous desires need discontinuous ways to achieve them. Virgin exhorts Indian youth to be inventive in their ways, to find new ways around old things. In the same way as Virgin Mobile is challenging the category and its doneways to unlock value for the youth. Virgin Mobile will be their partner in crime, and will exhort them to: Bypass The Firewall Of Sanctions Virgin Mobile as a brand in India has exhorted the youth to bypass sanctions over the last three years of its campaign. While year one and two (2008 & 2009) were largely dominated by brand and product campaigns, year three (2010) saw the brand making a big dent in the digital space. In 2010 Virgin was launching its GSM service around the time of IPL1 season 3 Indias largest television event, but Virgin Mobile had only 1% of the budget of its leading competitors to build momentum for its new offering. With 80 brands in the advertising melee and a 200% premium on spot rates, it was futile to enter the big boysleague on a limited budget. Any effort would be missed in the blink of an eye with the big beasts of telecoms splurging nothing less than $11m (Vodafone), compared to our IPL budget of less than $0.2m. We decided to shift the battleground from the television screen to the computer screen because thats where our audience was. And for the first time, the IPL was being telecast live on YouTube. Thus was born the idea of the Indian Panga2 League, which took the brand philosophy forward. The Indian Panga League was a series of 105 films which captured the spirit of sledging amongst cricket fans supporting different states over cheap inter-state calls.

IMPLEMENTATION
Creative Strategy
Telling Stories that Upset Social Codes

Our campaign creative told stories that were purposefully designed to bring out some of the grey areas in the public space. For the first time on national television, which seemed to have become the surrogate for Indias conscience, there were storylines and characters which were not whitewashed in goodness. The first brand film showed a young girl pretending to have lesbian tendencies in front of her parents, only to manipulate them into letting her go to Goa with her boyfriend. The second story is about how a young guy manages to bypass the hard-nosed traffic cop (in the Indian context often corrupt and seeking bribes) by making him talk to his father on the mobile phone. The father is no other than a friend of our protagonist. The third film is about a typical Indian government clerk falling for a faux sex hotline. A commentary on how its our senior generation that is pervert as against their constant bickering about the liberal ways of todays youth. The brand continued its tonality with the Indian Panga League. Staying true to its stance of being a real youth brand, each story/ pangacaptured the spirit of sledging as realistically as possible not only in content but also execution style and casting. The pangastook-off on player performances, idiosyncrasies, names, histrionics on and off the field, current events and cultural nuances, which all went into making the pangasrip-roaring hilarious. Giving the campaign a bolder and

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provocative tinge were the liberally sprinkled expletives in response to the oppositions jibes (which were obviously beeped out). To retain interest levels we actually scripted stories as the IPL was being played out, leveraging the most recent exploits and performances. This built momentum and gave the entire campaign an extremely livefeel. Media Strategy To connect with youth at a limited budget we decided to target the media that they would have most affinity with. With a 6% share of expenditure, the brand managed to capture a 10% share of voice amongst the youth. While TV and radio was used, only shows on channels that they could connect with were chosen. Allocation to digital was twice that of the category average and outdoors share of budget was 18% compared to category average of 30%.

For the IPL campaign we knew the medium to reach the youth with minimal cost and break the clutter was stand-alone digital. We had to target and leverage viral behaviour to generate momentum and hype for it to turn into a larger than life property. We used video banners, posted films on youth news sites and targeted email databases. We initiated a massive social media strategy to further participation and encourage visits to the site and our YouTube channel. Other assets included:
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Facebook: IPL fan page linked back to the IPL site Seeding of the TVCs on the teamsfan pages and linking it to the IPL site Twitter: Live broadcast of the match updates followed by Pangas

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PERFORMANCE AGAINST OBJECTIVES

ACQUISITION Virgin Mobile outperformed the industry not just in its rate of growth but also ARPU (average revenue per user), attracting bulk of its subscribers from the intended target group. 1. Averaged a 20% quarterly rate of growth in new subscribers against the industry growth rate of 4.19% in the quarter ending June 2009. The rate of acquisition jumped 30% after the Get Paid For Receiving Calls (Mahalingam) campaign and by 23% after the STD (Train) campaign went on air. 2. In 2010, we surpassed our target of 100% and registered a 129% increase in new subscriptions one month into the new service launch. From an average of 3500 a day, we more than doubled to 8000 a day in May 2010. 3. Achieved an ARPU (average revenue per user) of Rs.120, 30% above the industry average of Rs.92 for the quarter ending June 2009. 4. 80% of the total numbers of subscribers of Virgin Mobile are from the desired target segment of 18 25 years. Source: Virgin Mobile India Pvt. Ltd, November 09, TRAI Report July September 08 5. In 2010, the proportion of STD minutes doubled from 15% to 30%,way ahead of the industry average of 15%

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Source: Virgin Mobile India Pvt. Ltd. BRAND 1. Achieved a total awareness of 91% in the year of launch, significantly above the objective of 30% in the first 9 months of launch Source: AC Nielsen, Brand Health Evaluation, August October 08 2. Scored high on uniqueness as 86% felt Virgin Mobile advertising was uniquely different as compared to other telecom ads seen Source: AC Nielsen, Brand Health Evaluation, August October 08 3. Virgin Mobile scored higher than all competitive brands on imagery parameters of being innovativeand trendsetting consistently through 2008-2010

4. Higher views on YouTube for Virgin Mobile advertising compared to competitors ads on air during the same period. Just the nurse film got 196,456 views.

5. The Virgin Mobile website recorded 4,039,835 visits from April 1st 2008 to June 30th 2009 with 78% of them being new visits
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Source: Virgin Mobile, Google Analytics, November 09 6. Virgin Mobile dominated youth conversation online in 2010

Our website www.indianpangaleague.in: 1.5 Million+ unique views in over a month Fans posting their own pangas which we actually developed into films 43,000+ referrals and forwards to friends by visitors

Facebook: Fastest registration across industries!! 2,590 fans in just 22 days, compared to Fosters 500 odd fans after a one month activity. Twitter: exposure to 60,000+ Twitter users in just 29 days.
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Fans re-tweeting pangas Creating their own IPL hash tags Sending requests for not only more pangas but also the uncensored ones!

Biggest fan ever! An individual fan uploaded all the 105 films on a separate channel on YouTube which garnered 3,90,000 views YouTube: 1.35 Million views in just 50 days! +300 times more cost efficient (per view) vs. Aircel

Other Milestones for the Brand

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Silver EFFIE 2008 Bronze at JAY CHIAT 2009 AME 2009 for Best Insight and Strategic Thinking Bronze EFFIE 2009 Gold and Silver EFFIE 2010 Yahoo Big Idea Chair India
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Bronze at Spikes Asia 2010 Best Use of Digital Media, Including Social Media category Shortlist at the Digital Media Awards 2010 Potential entry for a Guinness Record for the maximum number of commercials by a single brand advertiser within a span of 45 days

LESSONS LEARNED
1. Building a young looking brand is different from building a brand for the youth. A real youth brand is not desperate to look cool. It is cool because of the things it does. We had to be young in motivation, not imagery. 2. Talking up versus talking down: Marketers and advertisers are always happy building brands that promise empowermentor liberation. We realized that the youth of todays India needed neither of these, as they were the silverspoongeneration. All that they needed was a certain legitimatization of their way of life. They needed a brand to be their partner in crime and not sit on a pedestal. 3. Youth is not a species, just a new generation. We often tend to stereotype youth as those guys with tattoos and piercings all over their bodies and gel in their hair. In real life, youth is just another generation, dealing with its own set of issues. They are normal people. 4. Being brave: Youth brands need to have the courage to bring out whats swept under the carpet. The locus of morality in India was changing. Virgin had to be brave to put it on the national television. Footnotes INSIGHTS AND STRATEGIC THINKING
1 IPL is the Indian Premier League A hugely popular yearly cricket match series between different state teams on the lines of

the English Premier League

2 Panga is a Hindi word for taking potshots at someone

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