AIRTEL: The Communication Campaign

Marketing Management Group Project 3 - Trimester 1

9
 It started to look from a regional level to pan India position.
 To become an Indian leader, Airtel needed to change its tagline.
 “Live Every Moment” (2002)
In 2002, Airtel signed on music composer A R Rahman and changed its tune to "Live every moment":
Rahman's signature tune for Airtel has transformed

musical advertisements for ever. This strategy was launched to capture the imagination of the customer. The tagline
denotes that each and every person in India lives every moment (emotions, feelings etc.) of life. And Airtel helps in doing
so.

The focus was on the endless possibilities of technology to make life good and advertising became two- pronged: a
product-driven communication that showcased new offerings like the Magic prepaid card, and an emotional
communication that showed younger people.

 “Express Yourself” (2003)

'Express Yourself' was successfully launched taking the ownership of the entire space of telecommunication and
strengthening the emotional bond that Airtel had established with its customers over the years.

It highlights the capability of Airtel in terms of performance and network coverage. This campaign was launched in regional
languages as well. Airtel also modified its logo to give it a more energetic and younger look. By this time, the emotional
angle was predominant it was a stark, black and white imagery that could stand out in what was becoming a highly
commoditized, crowded market.

Airtel seems to have consciously decided to go for the belly of the market and aggressive market expansion, while its
major competitors seem to be targeting relatively more sophisticated consumers (as in the case of Vodafone). There isn't a
great deal of differentiation in terms of pricing, services, schemes and so on, but there are differences in approach. Overall,
Airtel is focused on functionality and efficiency while Vodafone is more focused on warmth and emotions. Even though
 one may contemplate the creativity quotient of the Vodafone advertisements a notch higher than that of Airtel, Airtel has
the pie by the sheer force of uniform physical presence all throughout the country. Vodafone has a fragmented presence.

AIRTEL: The Communication Campaign

Marketing Management Group Project 3 - Trimester 1
10
 Creative Execution of Messaging Strategy:

Not many brands have been as creative and as an outcome innovative, in all the paraphernalia of communication tools as
has been Airtel. The Airtel ads, be they on paper, on television, on a hoarding, or anywhere, have a distinct recognition
and appeal. The

gamut of advertisements Airtel has used seem to have maintained a specific genre among them. The advertisements have
more often than not talked much more about the values than the product or the service. Or maybe the product and the
benefit have always been very intrinsically knit into a value. The creativity in communication can also be associated to the
innovative ways of seeking attention that Airtel has deployed, especially in outdoor advertising.

Talking about broadcast advertising; it is generally acknowledged as the most effective and powerful advertising medium
as compared to others. And Airtel has made full use of it. The ads range from depicting two boys playing football defying
borders, to a couple [Film actors Madhavan and Vidya Balan] romancing sitting at

home, from a person coming home to find 10s of celebrities waiting for him [Airtel TV], to a young lad going out of
village staying connected to his father. All these ads were built on a story and a value perceivable by the viewer of these.
Some were set in a far off no man‟s land, some in a village and

others in an apartment‟s living room. Almost never has there been an ad where someone

straightaway came and sung about the features of an Airtel connection. A common feature of all these ads has been the
instantly recognizable signature tune composed by A R Rahman. Some of these ads have a sense of grandeur about them
while others have family orientation, relations or innocent love as the underlying storyline.

Airtel advertisements have always maintained an up market feel about them. They have never been loud and in a way they
always have been very decent and simple. The celebrities also have

always been suitably chosen for each of these

advertisements depending upon the image of themselves thy have created in common public. To add

to all of this a very catchy slogan always goes along with these ads. Examples would be,” Express yourself”,
“Barriers break when people talk” and “Pyar ke beech mein kabhi dooriyan na aayen”, i.e “May there be no separation
between love” and many more.
AIRTEL: The Communication Campaign
Marketing Management Group Project 3 - Trimester 1
11
The effect of these advertisements has been phenomenal. The inherent strength of the Airtel
advertisements in this media comes from the creativity put into the advertisements that has let them
create an identity of a provider who is dependable, reliable, and in a
sense “THE BEST”. Very importantly, all these ads have been

supplemented positively by giving the best service among all the networks. On the flip side, the weakness of this media is
in the relative high cost and the number of irrelevant audience reached as Airtel has positioned itself as a comparatively
premium product.

The second important communication tool would be outdoor advertising. It is generally more suitable for brand
enhancement and reinforcement that it is for a new product setting feet in the market. This is one area where Airtel has
shown real innovation and at times out of the box thinking. Consider for instance making letter boxes in the shape of
Airtel SIM cards, or lamp posts with the lamps enclosed

in huge SIM cards. Or just picture a train running across cities and painted all
over with the Airtel logo. It grabs instant attention. Airtel invests heavily in the outdoor advertisements in all the cities and
towns across India. Its advertisements can be prominently seen across billboards and hoardings. These billboards often
have stills that remind of the latest Airtel ads being run on television. They are an efficient way of constantly reminding of
the value enforced by the TV commercial. The main advantage is the cost effectiveness as compared to TV, but they don‟t
enjoy as high an exposure as TV ads do. Airtel puts in a lot of effort in its outdoor publicity. It is evident from the
uniqueness in their ways of

advertisement.

As a method for its brand reinforcements, Airtel has often tied up with TV shows ranging from the biggest of all KBC, to
Indian Idol and many others. Other than that it has been a major sponsor of many prominent cricketing events

too. Airtel hasn‟t been a just a dormantsponso r

whose name will be seen only in advertisements, but it has made sure its presence was felt during the on time of the show
as well. For an example, whenever a contestant used to phone a friend in a KBC show, instantly the Airtel tune got on, the
logo got displayed on the screen and the host

very politely mentioned that the call is getting connected owing to the Airtel network. Such indirect
form of advertisement has a huge advantage in the sense that the attention of the audience doesn‟t

have to be solicited; instead the target customer is already all eyes and ears to the television. But the disadvantage crops up
from the fact that almost negligible information can be conveyed about the product per say. But as the main objective of
this form of indirect advertising is in reminding the audience about the presence of the brand, it solves its main purpose
effectively.