Being ZOOZOO

Dog has been and will be man's most faithful animal , but the vice-versa was never an adage.So our orange turned hutch turned vodafone folks though it was hig time to show unfaithfulness and they dumped our pug rather uncermoniously.Part of the reasons can be Maneka gandhi led Animal lovers group protest aganist use of our puggy which lead to exhaustion of our puggy and other such weird reasons.Next apna vodafone folks handed the onus to Oligivy and Mather , Niravana films to bring forth innovation plus appeal.After a hard ,long weeks of Cerbration were born the apple of our eye for last 30 days Egg shaped half human , half alien the ZOOZOO's.When the news of dumping the pugs hit the headlines i was rather scpetic about it . But rest as they was history.

So when IPL got deported aborad , to lift the Indian moods O&M delivered a masterpeice.These creatures is rather a far cry from Ads running presently running for various other companies who have roped in Multistars, superstars , Megastars et al. Maybe O&M or other marketing agenices did there homework.They learnt Bollywood biggies never seem to strike chord with Aam Junta(Shah Rukh Khan never rides in a santro , AB swears by his Armanis to name a few).So we rather put to work the TagLine of SEIMENS --"Sense and Simplicity".

The ZooZoo's are simple and sensible.More imporatntly there potent creatures to get the message across using a short play/skit followed by a Tetris after each story.It also cuts across the cultural , regional , language barrier by using a universally alien language to emphatically show the Ad -Gurus emotions and drama works better than some sleazy dialogues.


Vodafone used these Ads primarily to propound there VAS(Value Added Servies ) across viewers.In total they made 25 of them. Played out about 5 of them during intial IPL matches and to there surprise Audience were able to instantaneouly relate themselves. Add to that some zingy background score ,funny squeaks exchanged(i heard they used malaylam words like Appam ,pottu kadala) between our egglings and of course a simple story line .1 min of complete fun.Many IPL viewers look forward to these Ads more than the matches.


On the financial front , an avergae Indian Ad with our leading film stars cavorting in mini skirts and super bikes cost abt 10crore. 25 adds would cost 250 crore and ZooZoo's were made in a modest budget of less than 40 crore where the actors where South africans .What a win and couble win sitautiofor vodafone ad makers who had to think out the box in 30 second ad for a crowd puller program like IPL-2 which is also a marketers nightmare because of the clutter!


When they were aired first one couldnt make out whether it is animation or people in body suits.
Art of Ad-making! Finally vidoes started pouring in affirming that they were humans in Suits double there size.Very sensible .Animation costs way higher than body suits do and off late animations (Disasters like Jumbo ,Krishna ,return of hanuman etc) never really captured audience imagination possible due to poor qulaity of animation. So again a thumbs up to ZooZoo.


But the reason to be more proud of is the fact that it was made by Indians and directed too by an Indian - Prakash mehra. Indians Ads have come of age.

What from here on? The euphoria has been unprecedented .Social networking sites like facebook have formed communties with fan base above 70k. Quizzes are being launched.Bloggers like me are hot on ZooZoo topic.The making of ZooZoo videos are being passed all around though mails and other medium. Even the makers never expected this kind of acceptance !

Marketing Guru Seth Godin always emphasised that Brands should be Remarkable. He defined remarkable as " Worthy of Making a Remark about ".

The ZooZoo is a classic example of being Remarkable...

PS: Facts from Yahoo( i Sympathsize with Yang ) and not from googling ! :X

Comman Man strikes chord with UPA again!

So finally the saga is over.The much talked about , the much hyped Elections 2009 is over with UPA cleaning the ballot polls again.Was it surprising ? Well junta will agree NO.
Was it deserving? Well again junta will put it more diplomatically "We had no other choice"

So why did UPA win the polls again? Simply put it we the people for once couldn't asscociate with regional parties to a large extent .Regional parties were adovcating policies tailor made for the Aborgines of the region .Such affection to people belonging to one region isn't going to do much good , as every state of India is inhabited by people from other states too , many of whom are residents for 10+ years and hence have made this as there permanent perch.How and on what basis are they being alienated?
A classic example is MNS . There ideologies though novel is nowhere near practicality , buy combing out all the blue collar jobs held by Bihari bhaiyas and handing them over to marathi manoos is not going to do them any good. Even by replacing english hoardings with marathi is no good case either.you bring such regionalism into state people outside the region is getting uncomfortable and let me remind you these people are on the voters list of that region!

So how do you expect them to win when there is going to be no vote in their favour??
So we next look upto the National parties BJP , Congress ,Left etc. We examine them . The youth studies there manifestos and promises. I am not going to list down the pros and cons of each govt. Google it and most of it u alrady know it. And between all this each govt is the verbal game of hurtling at each other failures of opposite party by removing cases out from old coffers.

At each rally none or very rearly does the leaders list out strategic plans of what they are going to do for a better India.They are SMART .They know in rural India time can whiled away in rally just by hitting out at other parties and increase grudges and ill feelings in people aganist other parties. In India we do not follow and idealistic model of politics where like in US the to-bes come on national TV and debate with there policies , argue aganist each others polices and put a pciture in front of the people to decide the fate.Mud slinging politics is what we Indians are better at. MANIFESTOS - Stupidity i would say. People do not have enough time to read various parties manifestos , they rather hear from parties themselves.

In between this what at most parties can do is not get into trouble and provide slightest reasons for there faces to be smeared with Mud. Something which BJP rather failed disastrously. Varun Sanjay's anti hate speech. I have categorically not mentioned his family name , he doesnt deserve it. UPA also have not kept up with man of there promises. Many in progress and many not even started!
But for me the choice was simple BJP was more HINDU ideolgy driven party with Hindutva being there motto something that can scare the heebie-jeebies of the minorties.Hindutva should actually mean an act of doing for Hindustan not Hindus! But they got it way wrong!
Next comes the Left , well less said the better .Anti technology , Anti -progress, Farce communsim and there never ending anathema towards US for some reason was an easy strike out.
Then comes Congress , well secularsim is what they preach .But what resonated was our leader was an educated man . I believe educated and wise decisions are safer bets than people handling the chair with no education.I am not saying no education provides no results, i rather be safe.
Dr Manmohan Singh is a man i look upto with great respect.A visionary ,an able leader , sure he has his share of misses but which government doesnt. Boosting economic growth vests in his hands. EDUCATION EDUCATION EDUCATION all the way for me.Nothing more .
They are also filled youth in party . Not saying youth will deliver better but they will hear better.Rahul Gandhi doesnt carry eloquence of his father and his greatest weapon being KALAVATI has a long way to go.But he will learn.

But looking at the results , such thumping results of victory by UPA requires no great deal of intorspection. It was expected.
Hey its atleast better than Samaj VAAT party !

PS :-Groans and comments expected to open a better purview of things