Mktg - Yahoo India unveils its first brand campaign 'Log on to new'

In line with their consumer quest for ‘new’, Yahoo India! has launched its first brand campaign with the brand proposition - ‘Log on to New’. The TVC uses humour to highlight its tagline - ‘Every second counts’. Conceptualised by O&M Bangalore, the campaign signals the revamping of Yahoo Search and Yahoo Messenger.

While Prasoon Pandey, Director, Corcoise Films, has directed the TVC, Deepak Joshi, Senior Creative Director, O&M Bangalore, has written the script. The TVC broke on all news and entertainment channels on September 17.

Speaking about the launch, Nitin Mathur, Director-Marketing, Yahoo! India, said, “There is a strong and compelling reason for us to go out to the market in a much more vocal way and talk about our story. Through this campaign, we want to further strengthen our connection with the youth (16-24 age group) in India and give people a reason to make Yahoo! India their starting point to the Internet. This campaign will bring alive Yahoo!’s brand values in a contemporary manner and reinforce our leadership position as a lighthouse brand for new and first time users.”

He further said, “Yahoo India! Search will give users all the information they need on the very first page. With its increased speed, the search engine has become a very compelling product. Therefore, the TVC sports the tagline ‘Sometimes, every second counts.’ Yahoo Messenger is the leadership pillar product for Yahoo! India and, therefore, made the case for inclusion in the brand campaign.”

Commenting on the TVC, Amit Akali, Group Creative Director and Joint Creative Head, O&M Bangalore, said, “We conducted a study at O&M Bangalore for Yahoo! India and found that the youth instantly connected with anything that was new – be it upgrading a phone or a computer. This is where we embarked on the ‘Log on to new’ proposition, which is aptly demonstrated by Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Messenger.”

Malvika Mehra, Group Creative Director and Joint Creative Head, O&M Bangalore, said, “The brief we got from Yahoo! India was that sometimes every second counts when a user is searching. Keeping in mind this fact, Yahoo! Search bettered itself to generate search results faster. This was the establishing contour of the campaign. The new experience of searching and the array of new social features on Yahoo! Messenger are in sync with ‘Log on to new’.”

The TVC shows a group of sky divers readying for a jump from a plane. The instructor advises the sky divers that after jumping from the plane they should count till 10 before opening their parachutes. One overenthusiastic diver asks to be the first one to jump off the plane. However, he has a problem – he stammers. After jumping he begins counting till 10, but stammers very badly on each count, so by the time he reaches a count of 5, he is on a head-on collision course with the ground. With fear written all over his face, he desperately tries to latch on to the railing of a balcony, but misses it. And the sound of an ambulance reverberates.

The sequence of events corroborate the tagline ‘Sometimes, every second counts’. In the last scene of the TVC, the protagonist is seen stuttering ‘Yahoo’ like a wolf.

The campaign will be substantiated by a 360-degree initiative, which includes TVCs, radio, OOH and activation ideas online. The TVC of Yahoo! Messenger will break soon.