A Pug, the Zoozoos and a little blue bird!!!

The Zoozoos clearly seem to be the flavour of the season... a favourite amongst the ad fraternity and are a hit across age groups going by people's reactions and general buzz on the blogosphere. Welcome to the world of the Zoozoos!!!

Please read my blogs: "Here comes the Zoozoos!!!" and "The Making of the 'Zoozoos'!!!" to know more about these adorable alien-like creatures currently invading our TV screens (and our lives) during the IPL season 2 cricket matches.

In the past, too, 'Orange' and then 'Hutch' (the earlier avatars of 'Vodafone' in India) had made use of characters - an animated boy-girl duo - to whip up its value added service (VAS) offerings before consumers. But those characters were limited by their definition, unlike the Zoozoos, where an entire world of such characters has been etched. Zoozoos come in all shapes and sizes; kids, mother, friends, individuals… other characters... there does not seem to be a set format to use them.

Zoozoos storming the digital world! In the digital space, Zoozoos are currently featured on a specially created microsite - here, one can partake in quizzes and contests, including the "What kind of Zoozoo are you?" quiz. Each Zoozoo has a unique set of characteristics and traits allotted to it. The microsite also allows for goodies to be downloaded (including wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones), and offers details on the IPL. With a specially created YouTube channel on the site, the TVCs are provided there for people to watch and share.

Apart from the microsite, a Zoozoo fan page has been created on Facebook, where fans have access to special tag-me images, Zoozoo sounds (such as Zoozoo laughter and music tracks) and ad previews. Their fan page on Facebook has more than 35,000 fans now!!! People are also following Zoozoos on Twitter and get updates whenever new commercials go on air.

On the Zoozoos Facebook page, people can view new commercials, download images and wallpapers, and participate in a "What kind of Zoozoo are you?" contest. In the pipeline are a spot, titled "A day in the life of Zoozoo" on Twitter, and merchandise such as key-chains, mugs, T-shirts, and mobile phone stands. These folks will even beat the SRK marketing team by miles... when it comes to selling merchandise!!! What say?!!

Zoozoo ads are fast becoming popular on YouTube, and on certain days some of the videos even managed to figure among the most watched lot on the site, claims Harit Nagpal, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone India.

Know what kind of Zoozoo are you??? Take the Zoozoo quiz now! http://www.vodafone.in/ipl09/zoozoo.aspx

Some feel that the Zoozoos could well become a part of the brand story, instead of just being used for this VAS oriented campaign. But this comes with a warning tag: one has to be careful about letting the Zoozoos become bigger than the brand or the message. "Vodafone shouldn't get stuck with a format," says Brijesh Jacob, Managing Partner, White Canvas. "They did suffer this to a certain extent with the pug."

The 'pug' campaign (by Hutch) was iconic, and the Pug was very cute and adorable... na??? It also shot up the popularity of the pugs (and turned them into celebrities) among dog owners... a la that of the PWD after the most powerful man on the planet gifted one to his daughters! By PWD I mean the Portuguese Water Dog and not the Public Works Department!!! The Public Works Department, being a part of the government is closer to God... Why (???)... Haven't you heard "Government's work is God's work!!" (???) This pearl of wisdom can be found etched on a board outside the Vidhana Soudha, which is the seat of the state legislature of Karnataka and located in Bangalore (Bengaluru).

I also understand that of late the most powerful man on this planet, occupying the most expensive piece of real estate in the US of A has turned into an ardent animal lover and has publicly declared his preference for or rather his love for the 'majestic' buffalo... Moooo!!!!!

The iconic 'pug ads' (by Hutch) were masterpieces by themselves, with the tagline, "Wherever you go, our network follows." Cheeka (some say, Figaro) is the famous pug who appeared in the "You & I" advertising campaign of Hutch's cellular service in India, along with the child actor Jayaram. The dog follows the boy around in unlikely locations, prompting the tagline, "Wherever you go, our network follows." I remember the standard joke among my friends (with a Hutch connection)... whenever there was a connectivity issue or a network problem... we would unanimously say, "The pug is injured!" Ha Ha!!

Here is a link containing the video of one of these iconic 'pug' ads. The pug here is Cheeka/Figaro: http://vodpod.com/watch/658813-hutch-wherever-you-go-our-network-follows

A while ago, Cheeka/Figaro, handed over his modelling mantle to his son - Spike... hmmm talk about 'dynastic' succession!!! Since Hutch became Vodafone, Figaro's place has been taken by Spike, who stays in Bangalore... this was before the advent of the Zoozoos of course. Cheeka/Figaro lives in Gurgaon with his owner Mohit Gulati who had bought Figaro in the Philippines. The pedigreed Pug's father is from Australia and grandfather from Britain. Figaro was such a hit that his breed (a dwarf breed resembling a bulldog, the Pug has a flat nose and a wrinkled face) suddenly became one of the most popular in the country - selling for up to Rs 60,000 a pup! Figaro has won over a hundred awards. He has been named Asia's best Pug apart from winning the Indian title for three years. According to Gulati, Figaro got Rs 12,000 for the Hutch ad. Spike, on the other hand, got Rs 2 lakh for the Vodafone commercial. Truely a Hutchi-son enterprise!!! About the huge disparity in their respective remunerations (??)... ummm... must be the 'inflation'!!! Figaro has also appeared in a Microsoft ad. Gulati said a Kerala-based trader had once offered him Rs 12 lakh for Cheeka/Figaro - needless to say, he declined the offer. Smart, huh!!!

Here is the link containing the video of the 'Pug' ad, once 'Hutch' became 'Vodafone'. The pug here is Cheeka/Figaro's son - Spike. The tagline says, "Hutch is now Vodafone." Brilliant!!! http://vodpod.com/watch/658817-hutch-is-now-vodafone

Here is the link to yet another ad showing the transition from 'Hutch' to 'Vodafone'. Thats Spike again! http://vodpod.com/watch/599162-hutch-vodafone-india-ad?mp=1&pod=vodafoneads

Following is the Vodafone - "Happy to Help" video: http://vodpod.com/watch/658468-vodafone-happy-to-help?mp=1&pod=vodafoneads

That was Spike... yet again! Like father, like son!!!

Incidentally, the same combination of people also worked on the "Happy to Help" series last year, teamed up for the 'Zoozoo' ads as well. The films were shot by Nirvana Films in Cape Town, South Africa, with the help of a local production house there, called Platypus. When asked whether Cape Town is fast becoming a tourist spot for Vodafone and Nirvana, Prakash Varma, director at Nirvana Films, laughs, saying, "Oh no! It's just that we are very comfortable with the team there and know what sort of work to expect from them."

I found a link containing the videos of most of the Zoozoo ads and feel like to share it here: http://soumyadipc.blogspot.com/2009/05/vodafone-zoozoo-ads-complete-collection.html

However Mahesh Murthy, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pinstorm, a digital agency, sounds a word of caution. "While their media strategy to blast these ads during IPL has worked for the brand, the downside is that the characters are bigger than the story being sold. People have a limited capacity to remember features, so it may have worked to release the ads in a phased manner rather than hammer them out one after the other."

The Zoozoos are a rage now. We are not complaining!!!

Note: Information gathered courtesy: http://www.afaqs.com, http://vodpod.com (links) and Wikipedia.

Photographs courtesy: http://www.bollyadda.com/2009/04/zoozoo-wallpapers-zoo-zoo-wallpapers.html and Wikipedia.

Photographs: (in clockwise order)

1. Zoozoo wallpaper from the new Vodafone ads.

2. A picture of the classic Hutch ad - with the iconic tagline, "Wherever you go our network follows."

3. Another Zoozoo wallpaper from the new Vodafone ads.

The Making of the 'Zoozoos'!!!

The first Vodafone ad, among the new set of ads that I watched was the Beauty Alerts ad... and was hooked!

Please read my blog: "Here comes the Zoozoos!!!" to know more about these adorable alien-like creatures currently invading our TV screens (and our lives) during the IPL matches.

It is said that in life 'timing' is everything... to be successful, that is. Therefore, the 'timing' of these ads... telecasted during the IPL season 2 cricket matches... is bang on!!!

The rising popularity of the Zoozoos can also be attributed to the platform provided by the IPL, which garnered two billion eyeballs in its inaugural season last year. Whew!!! The viewership should be close to that figure in the current season as well... the 'God of democracy' notwithstanding!! [Was he responsible for the dip in the percentage of voters this time around (?)... I don't know!!] "There's also the curiosity factor piquing viewers who wonder, who are the Zoozoos really? Are they alien?" says Prasanth Mohanachandran, Executive Director (digital) at OgilvyOne Worldwide.

The Strategy: Media spends and visibility for brands peak during the IPL, so Vodafone obviously wanted a piece of the pie... Whoever spoke of the 'recession' obviously haven't heard of the 'IPL'... QED!!! According to Harit Nagpal, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone India, the brand was in need of an idea that would work doubly hard, as it was planning to spend some four months' worth of marketing monies in one month. "So, we chose not to do just one or two ads, or viewers would get bored quickly, watching them over and over on the IPL," says Nagpal. "The more the merrier"... you see, "Variety is the spice of life!!!"

The Making of the 'Zoozoos': Prakash Varma, ad filmmaker, Nirvana Films, has directed the commercials, and reveals that the 'Zoozoos' were a big challenge to create. The practical aspects of how they will move, talk, gesticulate and emote were very important. Essentially, costume design and artwork were crucial elements. "It took me three weeks of pre-production to understand how it will work," says Varma. There were two fabrics that were considered for the body suits, and one was rejected for it had too many wrinkles and was shiny. The wrinkles would have shown when the characters moved, thereby shattering the illusion of animation. "So we chose the more practical, thicker fabric," Varma explains. Like "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"... a wrinkle will give the suspense away!! Ha Ha!

The production team divided the outfit into two parts: the body and the head. The body part of the outfit was stuffed with foam in some places, while the head was attached separately. To make it look bigger than a human head, a harder material called 'Perspex' was used, which in turn was stuffed with foam (with scope for ventilation of course... Phew!). Let me clarify, 'Perspex' is no relation to 'Perspiration'!!!

If one wishes to understand the size of this head, here's a fact: a human head would typically reach up to the mouth level of this (gentle) giant Zoozoo head. "We kept the hands and legs thin, which is why we cast women - and occasionally children - wearing the costumes," says Varma. The thin limbs, contrasted with big bellies and a bulbous head, all add to the illusion that these creatures are 'smaller' than humans... (you see, all good things in life come in small packages... including Zoozoos!!!) Sets were created to suit the size of the Zoozoos.

Cinematically, this 'size' was a trick: the creatures look smaller than they actually are on screen, to portray a different world of sorts. For this, the speed of shooting was altered: Nirvana shot it in a high-speed format to make them look the size that they do. Furthermore, simple sets/backdrops were created and spray painted with neutral Greys - a colour of choice so that attention isn't diverted from the main characters. For a supposedly 'outdoor' shot, even the 'shadow' of a Zoozoo was kept 'live' and not done in post production: it was 'painted' in a darker shade of grey on the ground. An even lighting was maintained throughout.

There was virtually no post production work done. Nagpal adds here that the production cost had to be minimal for unveiling such a large number of commercials. "Otherwise, our production costs would exceed media spends," he quips. And then, in two-and-a-half months, the agency (Ogilvy India) had to come up with the films, each of which is 20-30 seconds long. Time is precious and time is money!!!

"We had to shoot, edit and finish sound recording for 30 different television commercials in 10 days. The whole thing, pre-production included, took a little over a month and was shot completely in Cape Town, South Africa," says Rajiv Rao, Executive Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy India.

The Team with the 'Midas touch': The team that 'created' the 'Zoozoo' includes Rajiv Rao, along with Kiran Anthony, Elizabeth Dias, Rajesh Mani, Mehul Patil, Kumar Subramaniam, Kapil Arora, Debaleena Ghosh and Desmond Fernandes. I think they should henceforth be known as the "VoZoo team"... for being the team behind the 'Vodafone-Zoozoo' work... what did you think (??)... No African black magic allowed here... !!! "VoZoo" and "Voodoo" are miles apart... okay, alphabets apart... the former has only 5 alphabets, while the latter has 6... the former has one 'o' less and the letter 'Z' instead of the letter 'd'... Clear?!!

The faces behind these eggheads! The characters, all local theatre actors (sorry, no 'stars' and their starry tantraums and nakhras.. may be the producer and the director did not want to become bakras!), had to perform in costumes, which came with their own set of problems. Wearing an enlarged headpiece, for example, meant that all the actors were practically blind... umm "visually impaired"... remember the question I posed on my blog: 50/2 in 103!! (???)

"They couldn't see where they were going, so we had several funny instances where the actors would walk right out of the frame during shooting. Also, it was very difficult for them to breathe with those headpieces on, so the actors would take them off every few minutes for some air. But after the first few days, we got into the groove of things and managed just fine," says Prakash Varma, director at Nirvana Films. See, work is fun or is it fun @ work?!! Well, 'fun' is 'fun'!!!

All in 3 crores! Since the shooting schedule was punishing, the film-maker had to use adult actors - all slim-built women... (wo)menopoly (!!!) - as opposed to children, who would have been better suited to play the part of the Zoozoos. As a result, to make the characters look tiny, all the sets and props had to be larger than life. The expressions on the faces of the Zoozoos, deliberately simplistic and limited in number, were all made in rubber and pasted onto their heads. While the change in expression and the characters could have been animated, it would have taken several years to finish 30 television commercials and would have come at a huge cost to the advertiser. According to Nagpal, the entire shoot cost approximately Rs 3 crore. Hmmm... every penny counts!!! Thats what I call, being penny-wise and pound-wise too!!!

But, the end result is quite 'priceless'..... what say?!!

(Stay tuned)

Note: Information gathered courtesy: http://www.afaqs.com and Wikipedia.

Photographs courtesy: http://www.bollyadda.com/2009/04/zoozoo-wallpapers-zoo-zoo-wallpapers.html and http://www.afaqs.com

Photographs: (in clockwise order)

1. Zoozoo wallpaper from the new Vodafone ad - Zoozoos having ice cream!

2. Zoozoo wallpaper from the new Vodafone ad - Zoozoos going for a drive!

3. A photograph of Rajiv Rao - Executive Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy India. He lead the team which 'created' the 'Zoozoo'.

4. A photograph of Prakash Varma - ad filmmaker, Nirvana Films. He has directed the 'Zoozoo' commercials.

Here comes the Zoozoos!!!

It was over 2 weeks ago... I was at home, comfortably ensconed in front of the television... popcorn bowl in hand... watching the IPL season 2 cricket matches. During the commercial breaks, my attention was attracted to the new Vodafone ads... where they were conveying a range of value added service (VAS) offerings to their customers. But wait a minute! Who were these lovable alien-like animated cartoon characters???

I discovered that these white, scrawny creatures with giant heads... who invade our TV screens during an IPL match are called 'Zoozoo'. Meet the Zoozoos, the stick-like figures with egg-like heads that appear in TV ads for Vodafone and have become all the rage in India!!! Cute and endearing... they have a certain madness to them, which makes them all the more likeable and memorable.

The sheer visual difference of the ads break through the clutter, a la the 'pug' ads... which were masterpieces by themselves... I never thought that the 'pug' could ever have a rival, in the world of advertisement... but the arrival of the 'Zoozoos' have proved me wrong. Infact, I am liking them more than the cricket matches... and I am sure that there are many who share my opinion!

On TV, the Zoozoos have come as a breath of fresh air providing a much-needed respite from the staple diet of cricket and politics (this being the season of the dance of the 'God of democracy' as well) that most viewers are living on or rather forced to live on. From the name 'Zoozoo' to the painted eyes and mouth, and the stick-like limbs, I have not seen anything like them.

My curiosity aroused (and needless to say that I was and am completely hooked), I set about to find more about these 'eggheads'!

The free dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Zoozoo) defines a 'Zoozoo' as 'the wood pigeon'. Hmmm... no similarities here... wood pigeons and these lovable alien-like creatures cannot even be distant cousins!!

No, they aren't animated characters. They are 'real' human beings who were made to wear body suits. According to Rajiv Rao, executive creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy India, "The design of the characters is such that one gets fooled into thinking it is animation," which was indeed the very illusion that had to be created. "In a sense, it is 'live' animation!" he quips, referring to the fact that it was all shot live. The films were shot by Nirvana Films in Cape Town, South Africa, with the help of a local production house there, called 'Platypus'. No, I am not referring to the 'Duckbill Platypus', silly... even though "Syd" the Platypus was one of the three mascots chosen for the Sydney 2000 Olympics along with an echidna and a kookaburra!!! This small, furry, shy little animal loves the water and Australia (and the worms, slugs, shrimp, larvae, eggs, fish, tadpoles and yappies in the waters in and around Australia, especially the rivers in Eastern Australia and Tasmania) too much I guess, and would not be interested to make the long travel (read: swim) to South Africa... to watch the DLF IPL 2009 and ogle at all the cheerleaders... there is plenty happening in Oz country itself with no dearth of eye candy either!!! Therefore, it is in no hurry for a change of taste!!! In any case, it keeps to itself and does not use its eyes or ears (poor thing)... and is also not keen to clock up frequent flier miles and travel awards... certainly not music to the ears of Vijay Mallya and his Kingfisher Airlines...!!!

Six months ago, Vodafone briefed its agency, Ogilvy India, to create uncommon characters - a common thread to link the ads in the campaign together. Rajiv Rao says that the only starting point for the team was that the character had to be simple to a stupefying level. And thus, the 'Zoozoo' was born.

Several characters were drawn up and considered by Rao and his team at O&M India, before they settled on the 'Zoozoo'.

"We were very close to what you see as the final version of Zoozoo. The only difference was that we had two options, one that looked more like Mr. Potato Head, a completely round body with thin limbs… the other, a thinner version with a big head and scrawny limbs. We picked the latter as it was easier to have head and body movements in that costume," says Rao.

Egghead! Ogilvy experimented with several characters and finally took its love for the term 'egghead' one step further, creating characters that don the colour white (with black dots for eyes and a mouth), have heads resembling eggs, and disproportionately thin bodies.

The idea is to tell the value added service (VAS) stories in a world akin to, yet different, from humans. The creatures were then given a characterisation: they are to lead simple lives, speak a language of their own - something that sounds like gibberish or perhaps this is the language spoken by 'dolls' just as Sanskrit is the language spoken by the Gods... well, I achieved some rhyming there (!) They have to move in a certain way, and even emote like human beings, with big frowns or big grins to do the trick. I have to mention the ad (the Vodafone International Roaming Ad) where Mr. and Mrs. Zoozoo are shown touring the world - the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel tower, etc., ... and Mr. Zoozoo's antics reminded me of... who else (?) but our very own Bollywood's shirtless thunder - Salman Khan a.k.a. Sallu Mian!!! And were the 'Star of the match' ads (the IPL Contest 1, the IPL Contest 2) 'inspired' by or alluding to a certain SRK??? Mmmm... mind chow!! The execution is almost like emoticons. "We even limited the number of emotions to be used, to keep things easy," says Rao.

A completely Indian concept, Rao lent these characters a name: the 'Zoozoos'. There's no science to it, he explains - the name just had to be something fun, memorable and catchy, and not a clever one that's difficult to pronounce. Ironically, nowhere in the communication does the 'Zoozoo' name pop up, but Rao doesn't feel that's much of a problem: it wasn't a task to popularise the name in the first place.

Currently, over 15 films are on air, for service offerings such as, Cricket Alerts, Beauty Alerts, Phone Backup, the IPL Contest 1, the IPL Contest 2, Chhota Credit, Vodafone Maps, Vodafone Call Filter, Live Games, Musical Greetings, Vodafone Stock Alerts, Vodafone International Roaming, Vodafone Bhakti sagar, Vodafone Dating Tips, Vodafone Love Guru and Vodafone Magic Box. Each film, shot against a Grey backdrop, has these characters interacting with one another (some storylines even have Zoozoo families) with the product story weaved in.

For instance, the Phone Backup ad (the first in the series) has several Zoozoos lined up to have their faces photocopied through a photocopier, while a tetris towards the end (the messenger in all the ads) announces how Vodafone allows for creating a phonebook backup.

In 2008, Vodafone had unveiled the 'Happy to Help' series during the first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). With the launch of the second season, Vodafone has given birth to the Zoozoo: a special character created specifically to convey a value added service (VAS) offering in each of the newly released commercials. What’s interesting is that there are some 25-30 such commercials planned under this campaign - each ad promoting a different value-added service on offer by Vodafone, from maps to stock alerts - about 15 of which are already on air. The aim is to release approximately one ad a day, to sustain the interest till the end of the IPL. It’s no mean feat to unleash so many commercials at a go, with the risk of the consumers not grasping them as fast as the brand churns them out.

"We wanted to create something unique. A character that would always be memorable… somewhat alien and yet, very human," says Prakash Varma, director at Nirvana Films, who made these ad films. "When we started out, the idea was to ensure that no one should be watching cricket. Everyone should be talking about 'Zoozoo'."

I guess the ads are a hit across age groups going by people's reactions and the general buzz on the blogosphere. Simply 'Zooperb'!!!

(More later)

Note: Information gathered courtesy: http://www.afaqs.com and Wikipedia.

Photographs courtesy: http://www.bollyadda.com/2009/04/zoozoo-wallpapers-zoo-zoo-wallpapers.html

Photographs: (in clockwise order)

1. Zoozoo wallpaper from the 'Vodafone International Roaming' ad.

2. Zoozoo wallpaper from the 'the IPL Contest 1' ad.

3. A 'Zoozoo' wearing a red tie. Looking quite natty... na??