Be 'Zoot' with MTS

The Zoot outdoor activity targetted at young professionals and tech-savvy youth is being carried out through hoardings, billboards, kiosks and bus branding in and around airports and busy roads of cities, across India.

MTS has recently started an out of home (OOH) campaign to promote the recently launched MTS Pulse, an Android-based smartphone from HTC. With the campaign, called 'Zoot', MTS has re-launched itself in a new avatar by bringing a new logo design, a tagline (A Step Ahead), and refreshed imagery.

The integrated campaign involves various media including television, print and outdoor, besides digital and social media and a host of other on-ground activations.

The creative part of the campaign has been conceptualised by Rediffusion-Y&R Delhi, and the outdoor agencies which have executed the campaign include Alive Media and Mediascope Publicitas.

The campaign, aimed at young professionals and tech-savvy youth, is being carried out on a national scale with focus on Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Jaipur.

The Zoot outdoor activity involves advertisements and promotions through hoardings, billboards, kiosks and bus branding in and around airports and busy roads of the cities.

Talking about airports being selected as the main target area for the campaign, Amitesh Rao, director, brand and media, MTS, says, "This is a nationwide campaign where we have tried to break away from the clutter and highlight the campaign at popular spots across all major cities in India. Airports are a natural catchment area as the profiles of most flyers is ideal for smartphones. Besides, airports are also important points of demonstration of the strength and coverage of the network. Thus, we have strategically planned our campaign close to airports in a number of cities including Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur."

In one of the activities, MTS has placed 72 billboards across a stretch of 1 km on the road leading to Bengaluru Airport. The billboards describe how to use MTS Pulse. Rao adds, "Karnataka is a key market for us and there are a lot of flyers flying in and out of Bengaluru. This particular initiative is aimed at demonstration of our network coverage and innovative services."

The campaign has been designed keeping in mind the fact that today's young generation is ready to take 'leaps of faith'. They create opportunities and work to make them come true. Hence, keeping in mind the context, the word Zoot was created. Zoot is slang for anything that's 'cool' and 'have fun'. Says Rao, "The Zoot campaign illustrates the essence of the brand as an enabler for people who are risk takers, willing to take great leaps of faith and back themselves even when the odds are against them. This essence is brought to life through the story of a guy who adds a new word to the English vocabulary overnight -- Zoot!"

In the television commercial, the protagonist announces the word and then uses technology to bring the word to life. The creatives of the outdoor campaign describe the 'Zoot', and showcase the features of the MTS Pulse from HTC.

For example, one of the creatives says, 'For Social Networking-Hanging out with friends just got more Zoot; while another says, 'For Music Sharing-Any time music is Zoot music'; a third one goes 'For Live TV on phone- Watching TV just got Zooter'.

Rao further adds, "Thus the campaign brings to life different elements of the experience of using an Android-based smartphone on the MTS network. There are multiple executions of the outdoor campaign and each one deals with one aspect of the experience."

The campaign, which began in the first week of April, will continue till the end of May.

For the record, Rediffusion-Y&R is the creative and digital agency of MTS; its media planning is handled by MPG.