‘OOH is key to our #SmarterWithIoT campaign’

What was the principal goal of brand communication and what was the brief given to the media planning team?
The Internet of Things (IoT) has gone beyond being just a buzzword. It is impacting practically every sector we can think of – agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, automotives, utilities, Smart Cities and more. Vodafone is a global leader in IoT and provides innovative IoT solutions to enterprises across industry verticals, facilitating more efficient use of available resources, automating several mundane manual tasks, and accelerating decision-making processes for them. Vodafone has a wide deployment of IoT solutions in Indian market and offers an industry-first solution for end-to-end management of device, application, connectivity, service platform, support and security.

With the goal of establishing its leadership in this domain, Vodafone launched the #SmarterWithIoT campaign, an industry-first enterprise brand campaign focussing on IoT by a telecom operator in India. The main objective is to trigger conversations around many possibilities of IoT across various sectors in India and partnering with Vodafone to make business smarter with IoT. The brief given to the media planning team was to make an impact in outdoor advertising with a mix of select hoardings at airports and corporate zones across key metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

Our target enterprise customer – CXOs and Business IT decision makers) are largely based in these cities. The creatives specifically talked about the transformative change IoT can bring to business in healthcare, manufacturing, smart city, automotive etc. with provocative lines such as “Your Parking Spot Will Find You” to talk about Smart Parking solutions which can be a reality in India.

In a hyper-competitive space like telecom, what were the differentiators in the overall campaign?
Vodafone’s focus on IoT is a differentiator in itself. Our C-Suite survey insights and the Annual IoT Barometer Report suggested that IoT is a top priority amongst key decision makers. Our #SmarterWithIoT campaign has been launched to gain that competitive edge in a hyper-dynamic industry like telecom. The campaign aims to increase awareness among enterprises on how they can leverage the benefits of IoT to become smarter than their peers.

This is being executed with visually intriguing outdoor hoardings that call out the “Possibilities in IoT” with various use cases starting from trees that fight against being cut down, to waste bins that empty themselves on time or even cars that alert when maintenance is needed. This is the first time ever that a brand has taken the first move to attempt a campaign of this magnitude for IoT in India.

What was the specific plan drawn up for OOH advertising? How did OOH complement the 360-degree brand campaign?
Out of home advertising forms a key element for us in the #SmarterWithIoT campaign, since a large part of our target audience is located in the key business hubs – Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. We conceptualised digital OOH boards targeted at the airports in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. The OOH campaign creatively showcases the use cases to the target audience. OOH has been complemented by print advertisements in leading financial newspapers, along with social and digital channels.

Please elaborate on the locations, formats and duration of the campaign.

#SmarterWithIoT is a year-long campaign, as IoT is a major focus from the business perspective. We believe this year will be revolutionary in terms of the scale of adoption of IoT in India across sectors.

As part of our media plan, the OOH campaign was spread over the month of May. We chose key spots on Mumbai’s Western Express Highway, leading up to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link to install our hoardings. We have also chosen select Corporate IT Parks in Bengaluru for our OOH activities. In the Delhi leg of the campaign, we have taken over a Rapid Metro station – Vodafone Belvedere Towers – including a complete train wrap up. Installations at the three airports will be retained throughout the month of June.

What kind of creatives were developed for the OOH campaign? Were there any innovations used?
Specific IoT scenarios were identified in order to develop the creatives for the OOH campaign. We customised certain OOH creatives and executed cutout installations on sites where permissions could be obtained. The idea was to make it more impactful and eye-catching for the audience.

What was the brief given to the OOH specialist firm for the campaign rollout?
The #SmarterWithIoT campaign had a clear objective in mind with regard to the OOH execution – maximum impact and visibility to be garnered over a period of one month. The creatives had to be placed strategically at locations where business decision makers would take notice of them. The idea was to be simple, comprehendible and easy to understand for common people, so that they become aware of the tremendous benefits and possibilities of IoT.

What methods were adopted to assess the impact of the campaign?
The impact of the campaign is being assessed on parameters such as changes to brand scores in brand track, campaign page visits, calls to toll free, business leads and so on.