Virgin Mobile talks different

What do you do when you’re the latest in an overcrowded market? First, zoom in on a demographic that you believe that you can own. Next, get your agency to communicate effectively to the target audience. Virgin Mobile and Bates decided to target urban Indian youth, and here are the results.

Considering the number of players in the mobile service business, any new entrant has a difficult task to be noticed, let alone gain marketshare. Existing brands such as Reliance, Vodafone, Idea, Tata and Airtel have all arrived at positioning and spaces that they “own”.
So what’s left for a newcomer like Virgin Mobile? They decided to own urban Indian youth (not a bad idea considering that this demographic is the largest and the “fastest growing).

So what can one say to youth, that difficult demographic that brands struggle to talk to?
Bates’ executive creative director, Rajeev Raja, explains, “Even before ideating we studied the youth of India very closely and realized that unlike their western counterparts, who were more prone to rebellion and public protest, Indian youth found clever ways around society’s sanctions.”
“Since the concept was based on the insight that the youth of India found smart ways around life’s problems, the Virgin Mobile brand exhorted them to ‘Think Hatke’,” Raja adds.

The brand has been launched with a multi-media campaign, the cornerstone of which are the TVCs. One is on air (Goa) and a second (Papa) due next week.

For the rest of the story, read Campaign India's issue dated March 14th.