This article was first published 14 years ago

Zoozoos: India's most adorable ad icons

Last updated on: April 20, 2011 16:23 IST

Image: Vodafone Zoozoo ad.

Zoozoos are undoubtedly the most admired advertisement icons in India. Zoozoos have turned into big celebrities, scripting one of the most successful stories in brand-building in the country.

No advertisement campaign has become so popular among all age groups in such a short span of time as the Zoozoos have.

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Launched during IPL Season 2, these small animated people in an alien avatar have captured the hearts of millions.

In fact, many people looked forward to the small commercial breaks in between the matches to catch a glimpse of these tiny wonders.

The stick-like figures with eggheads, with hardly any expression became an instant hit with the masses translating into rising sales as well.

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Conceived by Rajiv Rao, National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather, the ads were shot by Prakash Varma and produced by Nirvana Films.

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Vodafone started off with a series of 30 advertisements which was aired each day during the IPL Season 2.

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The entire shoot cost about Rs 3-crore (Rs 30 million) for the 30 different ads. It was money well spent. The brand building exercise worked wonders.

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Vodafone's latest advertisements are based on the 'Super Hero' ZooZoo, launched to mark the beginning of Vodafone 3G launch in India.

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The latest avatar of Zoozoos with a vodafone 3G logo show off as Superman.

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The Vodafone ads scored 100 per cent in a brand recall survey.

The 'super' Zoozoos are able to fly, stop a running train, run at the highest speed, even stop lightning from hitting the other Zoozoos.

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'Fact or Fiction?', 'UFO or Alien?', 'Bird or Plane?' 'Dream or Reality?' are some of the punchy lines in the new super hero series of ads.

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It was Vodafone's idea to make real people look like cartoon characters. So the Zoozoos are thin women covered in layers of white fabric. Women actors from local theatres were chosen to wear the appealing costumes.

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The advertisements are dominated by women and few children as the characters needed to have thin hands and legs.

Each facial expression is made of rubber and pasted on the actors to cut down on time and cost.

The sets were made larger than life to make the characters look small as the producers could not take children considering that the timings were not suitable.

While the body was made using a special material stuffed with foam in some places lie the stomach, the head was created using a harder material called Perspex.

Zoozoos highlight a number of value added services of Vodafone like phone backup, cricket, stock market alerts.

Vodafone ads are among the most watched videos on YouTube. There are thousands of Zoozoo fans on Facebook.

Each Vodafone advertisement comes with a short storyline and a message.

The fascinating aspect is that these Zoozoos talk gibberish, yet send out a clear message.

Vodafone has a microsite for quizzes, contests, wallpapers and screensavers based on Zoozoos.

Vodafone won the first People for Ethical Treatment for Animals (PETA) 2009 Glitterbox Award, for using human alternatives instead of animals in their Zoozoo ads. They had earlier used a pug in the advertisements.