Lowe designs Idea Cellular's Mumbai launch

Lowe India has created the campaign to mark the launch of Idea Cellular's services in Mumbai. 'Jiska number Mumbai ka, woh Mumbai ka!' is the positioning that the telecom brand has taken for its Mumbai launch. The creative team includes Ashwin Verky, Jaywant and Nikhil Rao.

Talking about the idea behind the campaign, R Balki, chairman and chief creative officer, Lowe says, "We wanted to build on the idea of Mumbaiites and non-mumbaiites and how phone numbers are a proof of identification. You can figure out if a person is from Mumbai by his/her phone number."

The first phase of the campaign started with a teaser which had people pointing out to various things in Mumbai which were not of Mumbai origin. This is followed with the reveal campaign featuring Idea's brand ambassador Abhishek Bachchan.

Major newspapers in the city were used innovatively for the reveal campaign. The front page of these dailes on Thursday were coloured yellow, with the second half of the front page including dummy copy integrated with the teaser campaign. The next page reveals the launch ad.

A number of below-the-line activities are being undertaken, as part of the launch. Idea has tied up with various restaurants in Mumbai which have food from other cities to extend the idea of the campaign. These initiatives will attempt to show that even if the food is from another city, the restaurants are from Mumbai. Most of the taxis in the city will be painted yellow with Idea's branding.

How challenging is the communication task for the brand in Mumbai which already has established players like Vodafone and Airtel? Balki answers, "It is as challenging for Idea as it would be challenging for these brands to enter the rest of the Maharashtra where Idea is the leader."