Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Virgin vs. Airtel


Have you guys seen some fight in the ad industry after Pepsi and coca cola ?? Hope everyone had seen the direct strike by Pepsi on coke by letting a 8 yr old boy stand on coke can to get Pepsi. Of-course those ads are banned in the industry but very well available on you tube :P Now here is another fight within the Indian telecom industry with their ads. These two ads were released long time back and still running even today. The conventional hair oil ad or detergent ad would target its competitor by showcasing the normal product with the competitors product color. But right now the ads of virgin and airtel has shaken the industry with a big surprise. Now lets watch both the ads and then we can discuss on it




So now that you have seen both the ads you could sense that Virgin completely opposed Short Messaging Service(sms) and next week this airtel ad came strongly insisting on sms. Virgin roped in Ranbir Kapoor and so does Airtel did with Sharman Joshi. So whats the fuss all about. Virgin a strongly believed youth brand should never have done that. That's a really big mistake on their part. They forgot the fact that more young Gens come every other day and most of them live on sms and IM's. So completely its affecting the brand of Virgin. And this shifting phase would really kill the brand. So now coming onto airtel. Airtel always perceived as peoples brand came immediately to the rescue of youngsters. This immediate reaction from airtel would have seriously made the virgin marketing team to sweat at-least for a moment. To add some more sugar they have also started a GPRS campaign which again convinces the youngsters perfectly well. Why now airtel taking away Youngies?? Well thats a big question :P Telling people to convey things by talking is a real feel good factor but now who tells it there lies the problem and whom you are telling to again that's a major criteria. Tik Tik bandh karo Talk Talk Shuru Karo may sound rhythmical. However Airtel's ad purposely carried a guy laughing at Sharman Joshi that sms wont work and asks him not to waste time and there Sharman gets a instant reply with lots of love :P. Sure to raise smiles when compared to the drowsy Ranbir ad. So this i wanted to bring to your notice such ads are really pathetic that could even drive away the brand as fast as possible. Soon iam planning to bring a new column for commentary on specific ads for which again i need all your support !!!!! Cheers !!!!!