It'll Feel so EMPTY, Without ME...

Today...September 21, 2007...did any of you watch the television?? Stupid
question. Of course you did. Wherever you switched, between movie breaks, during
movies, news, reality shows, during sports program breaks, after every other
thing that went into break, you name it.... we saw.... "Hutch is now VODAFONE".
I was so transfixed to the ad campaign that I waited and just observed whether
or not VODAFONE ad does come up during the breaks or not. And sure enough, there
it was. Including the cute little pug we associate Hutch with. I would really
like to know what their expenditure on advertisement for this single day alone
stands at. I have never ever, in my entire life of watching television, seen so
much publicity. This is what the Associated Foreign Press Had to
say...

Vodafone Plc's media saturation blitz follows its purchase in March of a majority stake in Hutchison Essar from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International for 11.1 billion dollars.
"The re-branding exercise has been good," said a beaming Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone, who was in the financial capital Mumbai to attend a board meeting of the company's new Indian unit.
"We're going to paint the town red," said Sarin in reference to Vodafone's red speech bubble logo, meant to signal the start of a new conversation.
The purchase of the Indian unit is seen as crucial to the British company's earnings growth as it struggles with saturated cellular markets in the developed world.
India is the world's fastest growing cellular market, adding more than six million subscribers a month.
"We think the brand change is the largest seen in this country and we think it could be said to be as big as has ever been done globally," Harit Nagpal, a senior official of the Indian unit, told AFP.
He declined to comment on the cost of the campaign but media reports put it at several million dollars.
Vodafone tied up with Rupert Murdoch's Star TV network to launch a 24-hour nationwide brand-awareness campaign.
Vodafone has said it wants to make its Indian unit the number one mobile provider in India by 2010. It has already moved up to third from fourth place since being acquired, overtaking state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
Vodafone has said its focus will be on rural markets and media reports said it has tied up with Chinese handset maker ZTE for low-cost handsets.
"Consumers can look forward to many great innovations from Vodafone in India," Indian-born Sarin said to reporters.
So far India's "mobile revolution" has been mainly confined to the cities, but analysts say the real prize lies in its vast rural areas, where nearly 70 percent of the country's 1.1 billion population live.
The Indian unit's formal name is Vodafone Essar as the other partner is Indian steel-to-shipping conglomerate Essar.

I Must admit that I am an Airtel loyalist. I had shifted to Hutch for a
year and soon became cell-sick. After watching the campaign, (and I have seen
enough of Vodafone sponsorship in international sport) I seriously want to shift
to Vodafone. Talking of ads creating an impact, this is it. In any case,
anything that sponsors any Formula One event, will interest me. And don't worry,
I'm not gonna drink Kingfisher.....Will only fly one. PEACE!!