Troubled telco Vodafone is trying to woo back its former customers by portraying them as fun-loving ‘Kidults’, with a new TVC and tranche of online and outdoor activity starting yesterday.

The idea behind the campaign is to “make people look twice” according to the telco’s general manager, brand and communications, Jana Kotatko, with the heads of babies spliced onto adults, and some deliberately obscure outdoor executions.

Vodafone is attempting to win back up to a million customers lost to rivals in the wake of the network problems experienced two years ago, and is looking to leverage the power of its new 4G network to help convince people to return, starting with the brand refresh unveiled last week.

The telco has pulled back from much of its promotional activity, including high profile sponsorships, in recent years as it looked to rebuild its network, but according to Kotako the time is right to launch the new multi-million dollar campaign.

“We’re a very different business to what we were two years ago,” Kotako told B&T. “We’ve improved customer perception amongst our own customers, but we’ve been unable to shift negative perception about the brand amongst non-customers.

“We want to address that gap between perception and reality, and the way to do that is not to fix Vodafone, we want a new Vodafone, which is what we’ve done. We’ve got a humble tone.

“We know a lot of people who left us feel they don’t fit at the other telcos, and this will give them a reason to come back to us.”

The painstakingly crafted TVC, created by Ogilvy Sydney, was painstakingly crafted with three days spent filming babies in front of a green screen, before being painstakingly grafted onto the actor’s bodies by post-production house Alt.Vfx.

It also features the quirky ‘I Feel Just Like a Child’ by Venezuela-born Devendra Banhart, a track suggested by Kotako for the spot.

Ogilvy’s national creative director Steve Back described the campaign as an “exciting proposition” to create the campaign, which was three months in the making.

“In essence we’re capturing the spirit of the brand and bringing it to life,” he said. “It’s really working hard to get people to like the brand again and get people to re-appraise the brand.

“As a platform “Discover the New” is pretty exciting, and we’ve got different ways of relaying it, which is also exciting.

“Within the category a lot of advertising is based on value propositions as opposed to a story telling, so there is a gap where the emotional front is concerned.”

The campaign is set to build over the coming weeks with more TV spots, as well as outdoor and digital executions based around the 4G, Red and Roam propositions the brand is building out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qMbHe4w2dI

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Credits: Vodafone: Kim Clarke CMO; Jana Kotatko General Manager, Brand & Marketing Communications; Rachael Butler – Head of Brand & Creative Strategy; Shawn Marsh Head of Campaigns & Media; STW Group: Fleur Marks STW Group Business Director, Vodafone; Ogilvy Sydney: Nathan Quailey General Manager; Steve Back Chief Creative Officer; Graham Johnson Senior Art Director; Oliver Devaris Senior Copywriter; Mark Sareff National Head of Strategy; Gerry Cyron Head of Brand Strategy; Katie Dally Group Account Director: Production Curious Film; Director Ash Bolland; Executive Producer Pete Grasse; Producer Tara Riddell: Alt.vfx; VFX Supervisor Jesse Bradstreet; 2D Supervisor Matt Chance; Lead Flame Artist Urs Furrer; Compositor Karen Fabling, Mick Harkin, Murray Smallwood, Mark Doney; Online Editor Matt Bennett; VFX Assistant Sean Ryan; Executive Producer Takeshi Takada.