Question

There are a lot of successful marketing campaigns out there. Do a little research and discuss one that may not be as well known, but still successful (in other words, not Apple's "Think Different" or "Got Milk") and say why it was successful. This does not have to be a current campaign.

Answer 1

In India, the cellular company called Idea came up with an advertisement for its Product Publicity with the basic motive to sell its SIM cards to the consumers. The advertisement basically revolved around a concept called as ‘IIN University’. This is a fictitious university presented by Idea Inc. abbreviated from Idea Internet Network. The first advertisement under this campaign revolved around a teenage boy who wished to pursue his engineering dreams but could not do so due to financial crisis that resulted him to take care of his father’s shot. He then subscribes to Idea’s SIM and shifts to the Idea internet network (IIN). He studied hard and became an informal genius on his own right. Upon people later asking from which university he studied Engineering, the boy would proudly reply as “From IIN university”. Now, the essence of this ad campaign laid in the fact that the Company backed on Internet network terming it as a University for learning through internet. Subsequently, it also came up with various other ads on similar lines like the rural ladies of India who are barred from education and rather encouraged to pick up the household chores, come together and study under the so-called ‘IIN-University”. As a matter of fact, this ad campaign rather confused many viewers who literally felt that such a University actually exists.

It was indeed an interesting novel but not directly involved with the product. The Publicity of the IIN concept diluted the Company from promoting its basic product, the ‘Idea SIM Card’ sales. The whole concept revolved around the imaginary basis of University which had no gravity of its own. Internet, as a platform, could be availed by all and in different forms. But Idea managed to position its SIM cards on the basis of promoting the University. However, clients, to quite an extent did approve the ideas only because the concepts discussed about the common public and how the financial challenges resulted into refraining them from learning. The public found an emotional connect with the concept even if not with the fact to purchase Idea SIM card because the same purpose could also be served by the other cellular network providers in the country. Hence, on the basis of emotional connect, it was a successful ad campaign but in terms of sales, it witnessed decent sales figures because the performance of the product, that is the internet, could not be particularly accredit to the brand image of Idea only.