Vodafone’s new commercial campaign during the IPL cricket tournament in India became a run over hit. Vodafone had launched a campaign of 30 ads featuring the value added services that the company offers. The ads were released one by one stretching through the IPL cricket tournament with one ad being released everyday or every second day. This was done so that people don’t get bored watching the same ad over and over again.

The campaign took the nation by storm. Everywhere people were talking about this campaign. There were as many talks about this campaign as there were about the matches being played. Now this is a big statement considering that cricket is nothing less than a religion in India. So what was so special about this campaign? Were their value added services so unique? Actually vodafone is providing most of these services from quite some time, so there was nothing new about these services. So what was different about this campaign? The answer is Zoozoo.

Zoozoo is an imaginary character created by Vodafone's agency Ogilvy India. Vodafone wanted to promote it's value added services and for that it wanted a charcter to form a link between their various ads. And hence, Zoozoo was created. Zoozoo has a big egg-shapedhead with scrawny legs and thin body. At first look, it looks like an alien. Zoozoo speaks a completely gibbrish language. Their movements, body language, emotions, gestures are all human like. The idea was to create a wrold which is very similar to humans yet very different. Then Vodafone created funny stories featurinf Zoozoo and related them to their value added services. Zoozooz are so lovable, funny and they have some madness about them that people connected to them immediately.

So are they animated characters? Zoozooz look like animations but actually they are real people wearing body suits. All the Zoozoo characters are played by theatre actors wearing tight body suits stuffed with foam to create round bodies and a large head made of a material called Perspex. The expressions on the faces of the Zoozooz, deliberately simplistic and limited in number, were all made in rubber and pasted onto their heads. The actors couldn't even see through the large heads which they were wearing.

Zoozooz had thin limbs, contrasted with big bellies and a bulbous head, all add to the illusion that these creatures are ‘smaller’ than humans. Though the fact is that all the adult actors were used for shooting of these ads instead of the kids which would have been the perfect fit. So to make Zoozooz look small in size, big sets were created. Cinematically size was the trick. To make the Zoozooz look smaller, the speed of shooting was altered and the ads were shot in a high-speed format.

Zoozooz became a hit in no time. Just within 15 days of the release of the first ad, zoozooz were all over the place.There are Zoozoo fan clubs on Internet, Zoozoo, on Facebook has already over 57000 members, Zoozoo is on Twitter, Zoozoo goodies, t-shirts, mugs, keychains, toys are on the way, contests featuring zoozooz are on the rise, "A day in the life of Zoozoo" is planned on Twitter. So basically Zoozoo has opened up a huge market.

Zoozooz have something mysterious about them. When they first aired on television, they seemed to be like aliens but they emoted and gesticulated much like the humans. The mystery about them made people excited about them.

They have certain madness about them. They behave in a funny yet human way. They are adorable, lovable and funny which makes people get emotional about them.

The stories told in 30 commercials are great. The greatest part about them is that Vodafone related these stories with the service they were promoting in a very intelligent way which made up for an intelligent advertising. Certainly better than those stupid commercials whose storyline has nothing to do with the product they are promoting.

Zoozoo was marketed very well. IPL provided a great platform for the Zoozoo commercials. People got to see various funny zoozoo advertisements. And the strategy of releasing the advertisements on a daily basis made people stick to their television sets even during the breaks. And also, people didn’t get bored watching the same ad over and over again. In fact, a curiosity was developed about “What next?”

Zoozoo seemed to be animated characters initially. But when the news came that there are real people behind the Zoozooz, the curiosity level took a further leap. People got more excited about the advertisements.

The charm of the Zoozoo was itself a great self marketing that Zoozoo did for itself. People liked the gestures and innocent faces of the Zoozoo. They wanted to see more of the Zoozoo. Zoozoo made everyone’s inside child come alive.

For now, Vodafone has announced to launch the Zoozoo goodies like zoozoo toys, zoozoo mugs, zoozoo keychains, zoozoo t-shirts and many more. You can look for some Zoozoo goodies here.

Zoozoo has created a big audience and opened up a big market. Now how long Zoozoo is able to maintain this Zoozoo Mania is a big question. People are crazy about Zoozoo these days. But how long this craze will stay is a question. But for the marketing students, Zoozoo story is a big lesson to learn.

Zoozooz are hit, but what about the services they were meant to endorse. In all the hype about the Zoozooz, the actual reason about their existence seems to be in a wilderness. Zoozooz were meant to endorse the value added services of Vodafone and they did that quite well but over time, they have overpowered the brand itself. This is because Zoozooz have themselves become a brand now.

Vodafone’s marketing strategies went well with the Zoozooz. They released 30 ads in around 45 days which created a sudden hype about the Zoozooz and the commercials. Yes it did promoted the VAS and many people got to know about the services they were previously not aware of. But it will be interesting to see how much good these advertisements do for these services.

It will also be interesting to see how Vodafone uses Zoozoo in the future. They have released 30 advertisements at a stretch. Zoozooz were meant to endorse VAS, but now it’s almost definite that they will get promoted to become full scale brand endorsers of the company. But how much Vodafone will be able to keep it’s identity in front of Zoozoo which has suddenly overpowered the brand itself.