‘We felt that an emotional attachment would go well with the audience'

Oppo, a Chinese smartphone brand, has entered India. Appointing Hrithik Roshan and Sonam Kapoor brand ambassadors was the first step to market entry, followed by the launch of a three-minute film starring the duo conceptualised by Karishma Lintas.

Campaign India caught up with Constantin WU Haoran, overseas brand manager and global brand management department, Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, to learn more about the ad campaign, Oppo's India entry strategy, and more.

Edited excerpts:

What's the idea behind entering the crowded smartphone space in India? What's Oppo's differentiator?

Even though it is a cluttered market, we see great potential in India.  As we all know, India is the 19th-largest exporter and the 10th-largest importer in the world. The country is ranked even higher when it comes to handset imports - June and July 2013 displayed  a volume growth of 3.4 per cent and value growth of 1.9 per cent. The smartphone market is still in its early growing stage, occupying only 24 per cent (of mobile handset sales) and we are expecting a boom in the next few years. Oppo is enjoying rapid growth globally. We are focusing on tapping the overseas market and consider India as an important outlet where we see a great potential for smartphones.

As a brand, Oppo emphasises on customer experience. Our flagship model is the N1, which comes with features like 206° free angle rotating camera, O-Touch rear touch panel and O-Click remote control (cum alarm). These are developed based on our diligent observation of various consumer behaviors and patterns. You don't often see these out-of-box ideas from other players.

The operating system is ColorOS, a customized ROM developed by OPPO based on Android. With these features in both hardware and software, OPPO is dedicated to bring some true differences to the industry.

What's the price range of the products under Oppo?

The Oppo N1 is priced at Rs. 39,999 (MRP). Our products range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000.

What was the brief given to the agency for the three-minute ad film?

N1 is a product that is meant not only to offer functionality to its users, but also to offer a unique experience. The experience that Oppo wants to offer is a beautiful and considerate one. Rather than show-off the functions and cold hardware parameters on the TVC, we felt that an emotional attachment would go well with the audience.

What was the idea behind roping in Sonam Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan as brand ambassadors?

They are a perfect couple on the screen. During the shoot, we saw great chemistry between them.

Oppo believes in competing with itself and not others. We thought hard and came up with out of the box ideas and innovations. Hrithik is the super hero who is always looking for challenges.

Sonam is a diva. She is elegant, fashionable and beautiful. She is the kind of user that the brand is trying to associate with. She is also to some extent a tech geek. She is an excellent  combination of beauty and intelligence.

Can you shed some information on your media plan? When will this campaign break and till when will it run?

We are unable to disclose the media plan but you will definitely witness an interesting campaign from us around the festival season.

Any marketing tie-ups in the near future?

There are possibilities, conversations are in progress and we will keep you updated.