Idea looks for daredevils

Idea's social campaign in association with Delhi Daredevils aims to identify and reward people for exemplary work in fighting social evils.

Always known for its different approach towards advertising, telecom giant Idea has entered the IPL with a bang by launching a social campaign titled 'Are you a Daredevil' in association with Delhi Daredevils, one of the nine IPL teams.

'Are you a Daredevil' aims to identify and reward people who have stood up and gathered the courage to fight against social evils. It invites people to share their stories by calling on the toll free numbers or on the online medium. The top 11 case studies will be selected and finally one of them will be chosen as the best daredevil story. The winners will be felicitated in a ceremony to be attended by the entire Delhi Daredevils team in the presence of members from Idea, GMR group and others.

Idea is the official sponsor of the Delhi Daredevil team. The title of the campaign thus gives both brands the perfect leverage to create the necessary buzz around the IPL.

Sashi Shankar, chief marketing officer, Idea Cellular, says, "I am sure in many of our consumers, there is a daredevil character which they have played at some point of their lives. This is a platform to share their daredevil moment with us. We want to celebrate with them and award these people for their effort to travel the road less travelled."

The campaign will be spread across Delhi, UP West, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Haryana circles as the matches of Delhi Daredevils will be played in these regions. Launched on April 4, it will continue till mid-May and will be spread across all media except television.

IVRS portals have been set up for all the four regions for non-Idea consumers, where they can share their daredevil stories. People can call at 9540121121 (Delhi), 8222802121 (Haryana), 9826002121 (MP and Chhattisgarh) and 8958855555(UP West) to share their stories, while Idea users can call up 121 directly. On the digital front, the users can log on to Idea's Facebook page and share their stories at www.facebook.com/idea.

Billboards across locations and BTL activities are planned to create buzz around the initiative. On the radio platform, radio jockeys on Fever FM, Radio Mirchi and Big FM are announcing the contest to spread awareness. A tie up with Hindustan Times Youth Nexus will also help to build conversation around the campaign.

The online medium is being leveraged through heavy promotions on several websites such as www.cricinfo.com, www.fridaymovies.com and others.

Idea has also launched a range of products and other offerings centred around IPL for its customers in Delhi and Haryana circles. This includes recharge packs with cricket alerts, T-20 games and wrapper games.

Idea has sponsored the Delhi Daredevils team for the past four years. It sponsored Mumbai Indians in the first season of IPL and Deccan Chargers in the second season. Shankar adds that in the last two seasons of IPL between the months of March and May, there was a significant increase of connect with the people.

Though the marketing spends around the campaign could not be ascertained, it learnt to be lower than what the brand spent in 2012.

Idea Cellular is India's third largest mobile operator, with over 121 million subscribers. Delhi Daredevils is owned by the GMR Group. The key members of the Delhi Daredevils team are Captain Mahela Jayawardene, Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, and Naman Ojha, who will be seen promoting Idea's Daredevil campaign across various media platforms throughout the duration of the tournament.