Zapak.com – New offering from ADA stable

This is one campaign in recent time which stands out. After the brand revamp of Reliance ADA group & Big FM launch I had almost written off ADA groups marketing team and Mudra advertising agency (Mudra is owned by ADA). But Zapak has forced me to think again.

Lot had been written about the ADA group’s Reliance logo and I would try to restrict myself. I think the color and font is pathetic. Only focus is on the “A” letter, and it has been done to symbolize Anil Ambani’s initials. Infact the focus on the letter A suggest that in near future he might be planning to drop Reliance word altogether and retain only the ‘A’. Rs. 700 crores was supposedly spent on the brand revamp and except for the advertisement featuring Amitabh Bachchan nothing was worth writing home about. “Infocomm” was a more appropriate word and re-branding to ‘Communication’ has just erased the distinction and limited the future possibility (I hope this is not limitation of vision). Same is the case with “Webworld”. There was no reason to change the name to ‘shop’??!! Again ‘Reliance India Mobile’ to ‘Reliance Mobile’ (in this case both versions are equally bad). I believe the only intent behind these name change was to erase big brother’s marks on the company. But he should have been more creative.

Similarly the ‘Big’ FM campaign is unimpressive. First – the word ‘Big’ itself is irrelevant. It’s like ‘Smart’ brand for the Reliance GSM service, I am still figuring out why the word was used or it was just the first English word they came across that day. Although Abhishek Bhachan’s presence had provided some visibility but I think he was not properly utilized. (Motorola did a great job with him).

Now Zapak. The work ‘Zapak’ is a well thought word. Although the word is not there in the dictionary - it communicates the gaming attitude. The colors, the font, the punchline – everything is well thought out and eye catching. And the best part is the advertisement campaign – specially the print advertisement.

My favorite is the 'toilet' advertisement below. The company has improvised on it and in many multiplexes has put stickers in toilets to this effect. Great way to catch your target audience at the place where they can’t take their eyes off. There are couple of other good print advertisements too.

Another noticeable thing is where Reliance Infocomm (sorry Reliance Communication as it is called now) is headed. Focus is no more on broadband and Netway project (Video on demand). Recent ADA moves suggest focus on GSM, Mobile stock trading and Gaming. Mobile stock trading and gaming are both what I call ‘addition business’ targeted at different age group. Infact voice (telecommunications) is also becoming an ‘addiction business’, with a specific segment of population talking for the sake of taking (Reliance communication’s - what to do with 2000 minutes campaign is indication of that). So, while the old Reliance was entering businesses where there was unsatisfied needs the new Reliance is creating demand where there is disposable income. The target population has completely changed. Mind you it’s a great strategy especially in developed world where basic demands have already been fulfilled. And of course these addiction businesses are not unsocial like cigarette or alcohol business, but provide you with loyal customers who guarantee regular cash flow.

Zapak is a big way forward and with the Reliance Webworld (sorry Reliance shop) infrastructure to back it would prove another great move by ADA. I have checked the website - C0llection of games, sorting, interface etc. is very good. A little more focus on broadband can further his interests. Again broadband is a business which need more implementation skill and is more information (or Data) oriented than Communication (Voice) oriented. MDA selected the name Infocomm because he wanted to communicate equal focus on both Voice and Data. ADA’s recent move suggests limited focus on data which might not be a great strategy considering the amazing optic fiber infrastructure the company has.