e Magus

“Hello, aap Rajeev Rai-ji bol rahen hain?” I’ve been hearing this since the time I took a new mobile connection when I got transferred to Delhi (about 3 years back).. The calls on my new number asking for Rajeev Rai has been insistent and consistent over the last 3 years…. Phone calls from banks, friends, loan sharks, out of town relatives..and even from the mobile service provider!!! (Vodafone India you have an awesome database about your customers) Basis the inputs (from the wrong calls) I’ve been receiving on Rajeev Rai… I’ve been able to create a personality of Rajeev Rai…. I believe Rajeev Rai is around 35-40 years old….He would belong to SEC C category in terms of the socioeconomic classification… (Reason… most of the calls address him to either Rajeev Rai-ji and also some instances of him being referred to as ‘mama’ (Uncle)and almost all the calls are from people who speak vernacular Hindi) My strong guess is that he is/was a small shop owner… this number was his primary phone ...

There was this big hoarding screaming about the launch of Blackberry Storm by Vodafone. "SMS STORM to 111".. This was a phone I was waiting for, and did not buy into the iphone hype that was there a few months back. SMS i did. and I got a nice auto response saying someone would be in touch with me in 48 hrs.. The hours have extended to 240, and the promised call has not yet come.. This is what i call the great Indian Digital Divide. Wherein the technology is making huge strides forward... but the personnel service still belongs to the pre-independence years As long as this last mile connectivity is not fixed... digital mechanisms will not be effective :( Vodafone, I am happy to help you in this regard :) Cheers Santosh

I was keenly waiting for the change of name advertising of Hutch to Vodafone. The Media and agency circles were abuzz with the media innovation of Roadblock on Star Network for 24 Hrs. Well, honestly, I did not find any media innovation, except for the fact that the media agency has picked up all the available ad inventories for one day. The creative was by any standard mediocre. Not an O&M ad...:( Well it has been a long journey for this telcom service provider in India... from Max-Orange-Hutch-Vodafone. I was disappointed. Hope they have some good digital innovation in terms of re-branding on the Internet and Mobile space Cheers Santosh