Tata DOCOMO ad mantra: Keep it simple, silly!

"Kuain ka mendhak bahar kyon nahi jata. . .kyonki bahar roaming lagta hai"…Sounds silly? Well, not so, for the Tata DOCOMO campaign on air this IPL season.

The GSM service arm of Tata Teleservices Limited has invested close to Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) for the campaign featuring Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor.

The TV commercials prod consumers to 'Keep it simple, silly!' -- capturing the company's communication theme and its promise to simplify and uncomplicate telecom experience through relevant products and services.

Gurinder Singh Sandhu, head-corporate marketing, Tata Teleservices, says: "Telecom is a highly commoditised category where all big brands advertise throughout the year.

"Our challenge was to create a campaign that brought alive our brand proposition and promise to customers to 'Keep it Simple with DOCOMO'.

"We believe this commercial will give us a huge boost in acquiring a large share of high-value customers and bring preference scores.

"This is aimed at increasing our post-paid connections."

The ad was conceived by Draftfcb Ulka, one of the largest communications agency globally.

The campaign has been constructed on a unique format of standup comedy featuring the youth icon.

"Ranbir is a perfect fit for the brand, young and talented. We look forward to a long and fruitful association with him," says Sandhu.

There are 40 creatives in this campaign and is expected to be aired a month beyond the 50-day

period.

But why was the ad campaign launched during IPL 4?

"IPL is like a media window if one wants to run multiple copies within a limited time frame. All our ads and messages look like sitting perfectly under the whole campain construct."

The campaign will also have promotional activites on radio, print, digital and in retail outlets.

The Rs 10,000 crore- (Rs 100 billion-) plus company has introduced many service plans in sync with the messages it conveyed through the ads -- a roam-free plan on post-paid, family plan, bill guarantee plan (the company pays the fine if one spots an error, no unwanted services and hassle-free talking to the customer care executives).

Sandhu says: "On noticing the first few days' response to our campaign, we were thrilled to see that it had not only broken the IPL TVCs clutter within the category but across categories.

"This has been contributed by several factors like strong message, unique concept, highly relevant pinpoints of the category, great script, stylish treatment, refreshing tone and cheeky sense of humour.

"All of these have fallen beautifully in place to capture basic consumers' insights and concerns about a telecom service."