India is a very unique country and the thing that makes us unique is the diversified culture, variety of languages, dishes that are unique to each part of India and much more. Irrespective of the place that we belong to, one thing that binds us together is the ‘Gentleman’s Game’, also called as Cricket. The game, as well as the rules, have undergone a significant amount of transformation with the advent of technology and wide-spread interest in the shorter format of the game. In the good old days, cricketers used to play more Test matches than One-day internationals.
Fast forward now, T20 which is a 20-over game has drawn more crowd in the stadiums. One of the primary reasons for the popularity of T20 can be attributed to the explosive nature of cricket played by the teams, where players enjoy playing big shots and spectators love watching them 🙂
When we talk about T20, one tournament that we cannot forget to mention is the iconic ‘Indian Premier League‘ or ‘IPL‘. The first match of IPL was played way back in 2008 and every year its popularity keeps rising. Due to IPL, a lot of domestic and upcoming cricketers get an opportunity to showcase their talent and play alongside international players. There is a huge viewership for IPL matches, be it the league matches/playoffs/eliminators. Due to these reasons, brands love to get associated with IPL through sponsorship’s, partnerships, etc. Along with Print Media; Digital Media has also played a vital role to keep the audience hooked onto the IPL.
When we talk about IPL, how can we forget those iconic Zoo-Zoos by Vodafone that became darling of the audience. Vodafone is one brand that is associated with IPL for a long time. Vodafone also came up with an engaging & rewarding contest during the 2014 edition of IPL called ‘Vodafone SuperFan Contest!‘.
It is IPL time once again and though this time, Vodafone is not one of the main sponsors of the event, they are still associated with Fans as ‘Unofficial Sponsor of Fans‘. Being an ‘Unofficial Sponsor’, Vodafone team came up with an innovative concept of ‘Vodafone Happy To Help‘ Bus. The ‘Vodafone Happy To Help’ bus is a special bus designed to help fans who wish to commute to the stadium for the match. This Bus will pick them at the designated route and drop them at the stadium.
Vodafone – ‘Happy To Help’ bus
- The Bus was designed to fly from various part of the city during the matches played in Bengaluru.
- This specially branded ‘Happy To Help’ bus picks up fans from designed locations announced on Radio Station, 2~3 days prior to a Bengaluru match.
On the day of the match the Radio Jockey’s join fans during the transit, they could stand a chance to win goodies from Vodafone. They also get a chance to go On-Air and support team Bengaluru.
The best part of this campaign is that Fans [who might not be Vodafone customers] can hop onto the bus and stand a chance to win fabulous goodies on their way to the stadium. It is a great way to build brand recall outside the stadium as Vodafone is not the official sponsor of IPL 2018.
Vodafone – Our ‘Happy To Help’ bus experience
We watched the Bengaluru v/s Hyderabad match on 17th May, 2018 and we boarded the ‘Vodafone Happy To Help’ bus to reach the Chinnaswamy Stadium. We were greeted with some executives from Vodafone and all the Fans in the bus had a great time interacting with RJ Prithvi from Fever 104 FM. In order to keep the fans engaged, the charismatic RJ tested the audience’s IPL knowledge. Every Fan won goodies from Vodafone. Fans also got a chance to go On-Air and it was a very delightful experience for each one of us on the bus. Amongst the political chaos in Bengaluru, the bus still managed to reach the stadium before-time inspite of taking the Ulsoor -> Indiranagar -> Marathalli -> Stadium route.
The engagement level of the offline campaign was very high where they witnessed 1000+ Fans engagement in a span of three hours. The ‘Happy To Help’ bus was operational on 25th April, 29th April, 1st May & 17th May and on each of these days, close to 170+ Fans were dropped at the stadium for the match during the Bengaluru matches. There was a great radio reach during the activity days since Radio is still considered mass-entertainment medium and is widely listened by various strata of the society. Below are some of the pictures where Fans can be seen alongside RJ Prithvi & Vodafone team
This was our experience with the Vodafone ‘Happy to Help’ bus where Vodafone was successful in creating a lasting impression in the minds of the current and prospective Vodafone customers, including the Fans!