IDEA’s ‘call the cricketers’ campaign

I remember my first meeting with Ravi Gupta, the legendary chief of Trikaya Advertising. I was a fresher in the agency then and was to meet him at a client’s office. Before joining advertising, I had heard that it is common practice to call your big boss by his first name. So, there I was practicing my introduction to him. Standing in the client’s conference room, I used to mentally picture myself saying, ‘Hi, Ravi!’ and variations thereof. He walked in with a big warm smile and a in a guttural voice said, ‘Hi, I am Ravi’ shaking my hand. I could only muster a meek, ‘G-g-g-good morning, Sir!’. Quite like Abhishek’s predicament calling Sachin Tendulkar, as part of the Idea Cellular’s IPL campaign.

Apart from the Vodafone Zoozoos, this is one campaign that sticks out in the IPL telecast. Not all the commercials are great, but the one’s featuring Abhishek work the best – he did a good job on the ‘I am also lefty, sir’ one. Short, sweet and drives home the point. Apparently, IDEA has raked in some 2 million calls, for this service though they have made it clear that the ‘prerecorded message may or may not be in Cricketer’s original’. The product idea is great though – simple and engaging. I guess the response is positive because it is a way to connect with your cricketing idol. Or so the consumer thinks.