Virgin Mobile's new campaign pushes 'Yoyo' tariff plan

Virgin Mobile has launched a new campaign for one of its tariff programmes 'Yoyo tariff' which allows friends to keep calls between them free by getting 10p for incoming and paying 10p for outgoing. The campaign has been created by Bates 141. The film has been directed by Prakash Varma of Nirvana Films.

The film opens on a young boy whose phone rings as he is lying in a hospital room with a fractured arm. He asks the nurse to check both his jeans' pockets for the phone. The nurse leaves the room as she can't find the phone. The boy then quickly takes off one of the bandages to pick up the phone and brags to his friend that their 'idea' worked very well. The friend then asks him to reciprocate when the nurse comes to his room. To his dismay, however, a male attendant comes in his room instead of the nurse.

The creative director and the copywriter for the campaign is Rohit Malkani. Darshan Chaudhuri is the art director. Malkani explains the insight which led to this 'cheeky' campaign, "Explaining one tariff plan is okay but explaining a tariff plan that is essentially a combination of two is difficult. The product works only if two friends indulge in a bit of give and take. So we broke the brief into one word - reciprocity and started examining areas where two friends go about helping each other.  Somewhere into the second round of scripts we hit upon this hilarious situation. Two boys who find a novel way to call each other and keep their calls free, at the same time get the sexy nurse's attention."

Rajeev Raja, national creative director, Bates 141 says, "There has been a common insight for all the Virgin Mobile communication in India. Unlike their western counterparts, youth in India wants to get the best out of any situation in a non confrontationist manner. They will negotiate for everything."