Faced with intense competition and falling ARPUs over the past few years, operators have pushed the fight into the advertising and value-added spaces. While it began with players luring customers with snappy taglines and attractively priced offerings, the trend today is to use one's brand to promote social causes and flood the market with socially relevant services.

Vodafone Essar, for instance, has recently introduced an eco-friendly vehicle, the E-rick, for commuters in Delhi. The E-rick cabin is made of wholly recyclable polyethylene; it has a heavy duty modular steel frame and an advanced, digitally controlled electric propulsion system. The vehicle is powered by batteries and has zero emissions, thus aiming to reduce the carbon footprint. The E-rick is available for commuting short distances and is currently available in certain parts of the city, including some college campuses.

Meanwhile, Reliance Communications has come up with an initiative designed to help the visually impaired. Its "Braille bill" service provides a summarised bill with details of the customer's current usage, bill amount, previous dues, last payment and adjustments in Braille. The facility is currently available to its post-paid customers.

Recently, Bharti Airtel joined hands with handset maker Nokia to provide the Ovi Life Tools service, which gives its rural users access to relevant content on agriculture, education and entertainment.  Airtel customers can now activate Ovi Life Tools across areas with network availability at affordable rates, starting at Rs 10 per pack.

Telecom equipment and handset vendors too  have got into the act. Nokia, for example, launched a "Take Back" initiative last year, aimed at recycling and reusing old handsets and accessories. As part of the campaign, Nokia accepted used handsets and accessories at select Nokia Priority outlets and Nokia Care Centers. Con-

sumers simply had to drop off their old handsets for recycling; Nokia in return planted a tree for every handset dropped in its recycling bins.

Close on its heels, telecom operator Aircel launched a campaign targeted at the youth who tend to change their handsets more frequently. Its intent was to donate old mobile handsets to senior citizens in order to connect them to the world and their loved ones. Aircel provided drop boxes where people could donate their old handsets. The company would refurbish the handsets before donating them to HelpAge India, an NGO it had tied up with to distribute the handsets at old age homes.

Samsung India Electronics, too, followed suit. It launched the Samsung Takeback and Recycle (STAR) programme in the country, aimed at generating awareness and educating consumers on the importance of recycling e-waste. As part of this programme, the company encourages consumers to recycle Samsung-branded consumer electronics such as mobile handsets, televisions, DVD and VHS players, audio equipment, home theatre systems and cameras. Consumers can dispose of portable products at 235 locations in 20 cities across the Samsung service centre network.  For this programme, Samsung has signed contracts with Central Pollution Control Board-authorised e-waste recyclers for product takeback and recycling. The company's recycling partners have committed to not incinerate, land fill or export toxic waste to developing countries.

Sony Ericsson took up the cause of the environment by introducing the GreenHeart series of handhelds in late 2009. The Naite, a handheld equipped with standard features such as a 2 megapixel camera and an inbuilt media player, also packed in a host of "green" features. These included an electronic, in-phone manual that replaced the standard paper version and saved substantial paper. The e-manual also reduced the impact of transporting the final product through more compact packaging.  Made from a minimum of 50 per cent recycled plastic, the Naite included a low-power charger, the Ecomate application, which helped users make greener choices, and a carbon footprint calculator. In fact, Sony Ericsson's Elm handset, which is also a part of the GreenHeart series, was recently named the most sustainable handset in the market and was awarded 4.3 out of 5 for its green credentials.

Today, telecom operators are not merely limiting themselves to offering innovative products but are also lending their name to worthy social causes. Aircel, for instance, launched a "Save Our Tigers" campaign in February this year, in collaboration with WWF India.  The tagline of the campaign was, "Just 1411 Left", which highlighted the rapid decline in the number of tigers in the country, thus encouraging the public to take action.

Industry analysts say that promoting socially relevant causes is a strategic move on the operators' part. It is not only co-branding at its best but also ensures top-of-the-mind brand recall, which is vital to net subscribers.

This is illustrated by Aircel's tiger campaign. The brief to Dentsu Communications, the creative agency behind the campaign, was clear-cut: to structure a long-term, all-encompassing 360-degree public communication campaign that would sensitise people to the urgent need for protecting India's national animal. Dentsu Communications created four television commercials. The initiative was kicked off with a television commercial featuring a tiger cub searching for its mother, which had, in all probability, been poached. Barely a few weeks after its release, "Stripey the cub" became the face of the campaign and was visible on hoardings across multiple states. According to an Aircel spokesperson, "As a service provider, we are in the realm of communication, where we can connect with and create awareness among the audience. This project has a direct impact on the environment and is close to our heart. Therefore, we are a part of this."

While the main film focused on Stripey, subsequent commercials leveraged celebrity power. They featured cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, footballer Baichung Bhutia, actors Amitabh Bachchan and Suriya pledging their support to the cause of tiger conservation.

Besides television, Aircel and WWF India also used the internet as a communication tool. The telecom operator set up a website that offered people a chance to express their support and donate for the cause. Another interesting initiative from Aircel's stable was the "Sail through our network this monsoon" campaign, developed by Primesite, Mudra MAX's out-of-home solutions unit. As part of the campaign, Primesite placed boats and buoys in low-lying areas prone to waterlogging during the monsoons in Mumbai. The idea was to rescue stranded people by ferrying them to safer areas, thereby creatively sending across the message that "Aircel helps Mumbai to sail through its network".

Another operator known for its innovative and socially relevant ads is Idea Cellular. The operator released several new commercials as part of its "What an Idea, Sirji" series. The films dealt with a number of themes including education, democracy, health and the hazards of global warming. According to an Idea spokesperson, the key thought in all the campaigns was to offer simple solutions to complex problems through the power of mobile telephony.

The ads were straightforward and highlighted the issues with a touch of humour. The "Use Mobile, Save Paper" campaign was among the most memorable. The ad punned on ped, the Hindi word for tree, with a woodcutter asking brand ambassador Abhishek Bachchan (the tree) whether he was "post-ped/paid" or "pre-ped/paid". The ad showcased how the mobile phone can be used as an

efficient tool to read daily newspapers, generate e-bills, make payments and transactions, issue e-tickets and boarding passes, thereby saving tonnes of paper and precious trees every day.

Not all of Idea's commercials have been quirky. Sometimes they have been sombre, in line with the message they conveyed. Its "Talk For India" initiative, for instance, marked the anniversary of the 26/11 attacks and sought to raise funds to support the security forces in the country. The campaign, created by Lowe Lintas, encouraged millions of Indians to make calls between 8.36 p.m. and 9.36 p.m. on November 26, 2009. The net income from these calls was then donated to the government in support of its initiative to strengthen the national security of the country. Commenting on the message behind the campaign, Ashwin Varkey, creative director, Lowe Lintas, says, "We have to give an idea in each of the Idea commercials. Yes, there is a slight fantasy element involved; however, 26/11 is not an issue where you can just give an idea or point of view."

After several years of producing lacklustre ads that typically featured the company logo and a brief description of its achievements, state-owned operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has changed tracks in the past two years. Its latest commercials, featuring Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, highlight the operator's 3G services as an effective and affordable medium to bridge the rural-urban divide. The visual takes the viewer through the hilly terrain of the Northeast and Himachal Pradesh to remote villages in the plains where the protagonist helps various people through her BSNL mobile and broadband connection. With the theme "Hindustan Bol Raha Hai", the ad depicts how BSNL's telemedicine and e-education services, and comprehensive network are connecting people from all walks of life, providing them information and creating awareness.

Clearly, socially relevant initiatives have become central to operators' ad campaigns and caught the imagination of the public as well. According to AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research, social advertisements ranked third in terms of the most advertised category on television during the first quarter of 2010. This is in sharp contrast to a decade ago when they were ranked 20th.