New Delhi: Vodafone India, one of India?s leading telecommunications service providers, in line with its endeavour to provide unique and differentiated experience to its customers will speed up Delhi on Sunday, October 28, 2012 for the second season of India?s racing event at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) at Greater Noida.

As part of the initiative, Vodafone has tied up with Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) flyway authorities to make the big race experience for racing enthusiasts in Delhi and NCR more interesting. On the main race day on Sunday, October 28, 2012, from 8am to 10pm, Vodafone will speed-up Delhi by making the DND Flyway Toll free allowing Delhi-ites a hassle-free experience as they will not have to wait in long queues to pay toll and get to reach BIC faster, smarter and better.

Vodafone India has received the approval and necessary written permission from Noida Toll Bridge Company.

Anuradha Aggarwal, Sr. VP ?Brand Communication and Insights, Vodafone India said, ?Vodafone believes in providing unique experience to customers in all its activities and engagements. With the second season of India?s racing event round the corner, following the success of Vodafone Speed fest in Mumbai last month, we decided to speed up Delhi making it a fun and fast experience for fans and enthusiasts of motorsport. We hope visitors using the DND flyway on race day will have a speedy and joyful ride to the circuit.?

Mumbai: As India gets ready to host the pulsating Formula One race for the second time, CNBC-TV18 is all set to create the fervor of the ultimate motorsports fiesta with ?Overdrive on Track?. The award winning show on the channel, ?Overdrive?, has strategically created a special four part series going beyond the threshold of racing tracks. The series will not only bring viewers close to the actions from Buddh International Circuit but will also provide them with an overall perspective of the sport. The series is packed with various interesting anecdotes that will elucidate viewers about competing teams and drivers, the technology involved in F1 apart from the investments, revenue and profitability associated with the motorsports extravaganza. The highlight of the series will be India?s F1 connect, with spotlight on the Indian sponsors, players and also on the impact of F1 on Indian motorsports scenario.

Viewers will get a 360 degree perspective on F1, starting from the recap of the debut year of Indian Grand Prix, to a comprehensive analysis of the F1 business. CNBC TV18?s team will interact with key stakeholders likes of Mr. Askari Zaidi from Jaypee Group, Indian Motorsports Head, Mr. Vicky Chandhok and sponsors like Airtel & Vodafone to understand their stakes involved and how they plan to obtain maximum returns. The On-track race management team will provide an inside view of the functioning of a modern F1 race weekend. The series will also bring the audience up-close and personal with key teams & drivers, team principles and senior F1 journalists who will be a part of the annual speeding glory. Also, viewers will get acquainted with the cutting-edge technology that forms the vertebrae of F1. The series will culminate with a comprehensive review of the 2nd Indian Grand Prix and enlighten viewers about the future of one of the most high-maintenance sports.

Part 1 Airing on Saturday, October 13th at 11:30 am & 10:30 pm on CNBC TV18

Mumbai: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Vodafone India will speed up India by offering motor-racing enthusiasts their first street racing experience. Motor racing fans and loyal customers of Vodafone will witness Lewis Hamilton burn rubber in his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-27 car on Sunday, September 16, 2012 (evening), just a week before the Singapore Grand Prix 2012 night race. The venue for this unique and exciting initiative will be the historic and breath-taking landscape of Marine Drive in South Mumbai.

Lewis will enthrall the crowd driving in his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-27 car along the curves of the brilliantly illuminated Queen?s necklace (Marine Drive) that will be made to look like a Formula 1 race track complete with grand stand and pit garage. The ambience, the driving skills of Lewis and lightning fast speeds of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes car is sure to leave the audience spellbound. Some lucky customers will have the privilege of riding with Lewis Hamilton and a chance of visiting the pit garage to see the technology behind the team, powered by Vodafone.

Vodafone is the ?Title sponsor? and ?Official Total Communications Partner? of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team since 2007. This partnership is Vodafone?s major global sponsorship and is part of an ongoing commitment to the Formula 1 World Championship, a sport which continues to deliver massive global television coverage and which has significant appeal for Vodafone?s consumer and business customers and racing fans around the world.

Says, Marten Pieters, MD & CEO, Vodafone India, ?Vodafone shares an exclusive relationship with McLaren Mercedes which gives us access to the team, the drivers and other assets which enables us to provide our customers unique content and enjoy great experiential events and promotions.?

?Our activities in India are an extension of this association. I am very excited that we can bring world known megastars like Lewis Hamilton to India. The street race experience in Mumbai is an exclusive event that happens so far only in Monaco and Singapore. We are very happy to bring our customers to get closer to this action?, adds Marten.

An excited Lewis Hamilton, who is no stranger to India and enjoys a tremendous fan following said, ?I always love coming to India and I am really excited to be coming to the city of Mumbai this time. I would like to thank Vodafone for their continued support to the team. I am simply overwhelmed by the incredible excitement shown by the people of this country. I had a wonderful experience in Bangalore last year and this year I am hoping that the excitement will be faster, smarter and better in Mumbai?, adds Lewis.

The excitement around this initiative is already building up on Twitter with a #speedupmumbai requesting people to tweet their opinions on what it takes to speed up the city. Over 500 people have already tweeted about what they would love to do to speed up the city. This activity around the drive will peak into Vodafone Speedfest from Sept 11-16, 2012 at malls and high-footfall locations across Mumbai.

Motor racing enthusiasts and speed lovers will enjoy a full-scale speed experience with helmet simulators, car simulators and also an opportunity to get up close and personal with the exact replica of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes car.

All through August 2012, Vodafone has also been engaging with its customers and motor racing fans across the country through a roadshow showcasing the exact replica of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes car at business parks and malls. This initiative has seen tremendous response from die-hard fans and motor sport enthusiasts all over as they engaged in interactive games and clicked pictures with the speed machine.

Additionally, in order to make significant in-roads into the small and medium business community and to give then a platform for easier path of growth, Vodafone India, launched the second season of Vodafone Drive into the Big League. This initiative gives one lucky SME the opportunity to take center stage with their logo on the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes cars at the second season of the formula one motor racing event in Delhi. Vodafone received a phenomenal response of over 270,000 entries for the contest vying for the coveted spot. The winner of this unique initiative will be announced days before the start of the Indian Grand Prix weekend (Oct 26-28., 2012) in Delhi.

Vodafone and Speed go hand in hand and today in a survey undertaken by German-based engineering services provider P3 Group, it?s the fastest data network in the country.

Mumbai: Vodafone ?MTV Rush?, directed by acclaimed bollywood director Bejoy Nambiar of ?Shaitan? fame, revolves around 12 characters and the one common string - a 48 hour college festival. It is fast paced storytelling with unexpected twists and turns in every episode. The intrigue and surprises packs the punch in the show. At MTV headquarters, the team decided to do something different while communicating the key peg of the show. They decided to let the audience feel the ?Rush? in its truest sense. MTV created a surge of Rush to surprise the audience, and while doing that, communicated the theme of the show through a unique on-ground experience.

On a Sunday afternoon, a prominent suburban mall in Mumbai city was chosen as a venue. A surprise was planned as a 2 minute Rush-ed drama that caught the oblivious youth hanging out with friends in the mall and multiplex. A high energy drama was conceived to showcase multiplicity of protagonists and curious mix of talent in one power-packed performance. The act started with a floor-cleaner who carries on the mundane cleaning job in the atrium. As the clock ticks, the audience is startled with the screaming voice of a damsel in distress being chased by a biker down the stairs. The act brings together nanchak experts, bmx bikers, soccer free-stylists, b-boys, parkow stunter; and all this spectacle ends with a revelation about the show. The mode of promotion was chosen to reflect the energy, edginess and unpredictability of the show. MTV roped in experts to carry out the stunts and repeated this act every hour on the hour to drive the impact.

Aditya Swamy, EVP and Business head, MTV said ?We were looking to bring alive the emotions associated with the word RUSH... something that was interactive and engaging... And the disruption we managed to create had a multiplier effect once we brought the web to the mix. Add this to the other promotional elements for the show and you have what we call a ?surround sound? marketing campaign.?

To build the curiosity and rush, MTV started promoting the hash-tag #givesmerush on twitter, giving the twitteratis a slice of the thrill and exhilaration. The hash-tag trended for more than 12 hours. The uploaded video that captured the on-ground drama ?Sunday shopping that guaranteed a RUSH!? video has fetched more than 70 thousand views on YouTube.

Mumbai: Vodafone India, a leading Indian telecommunications service provider, won a bronze in the Direct Lions category for the best low budget campaign. The iFold campaign, focused on saving paper and going green, won over the other eight Indian entries shortlisted under this category.

The iFold campaign was a very simple yet very effective way of saving paper by minimizing its use. With low internet penetration in India, many customers still prefer to get their monthly mobile bills on paper rather than on emails. The iFold idea was to see if the bill can be folded one more time and hence save paper used for making envelopes for these bills.

Ogilvy and Mather was the creative agency and pulled off the campaign beautifully. iFold helped in reducing the paper used for envelopes to send the monthly bills to Vodafone customers by almost half. The envelopes were also iFold branded, further propagating the idea of saving paper.

Speaking about the campaign Marten Pieters, MD & CEO, Vodafone India said, "We, at Vodafone, are focused on our green initiatives along with delivering innovative solutions. The iFold idea fits the bill perfectly as not only a way of saving paper but also a very innovative way of delivering the message of ?Save paper, Save trees? to our customers. We are happy that the effort taken in this direction has been noticed and appreciated".

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is the world?s biggest celebration of creativity in communications and over 28,000 entries from all over the world were showcased and judged at the Festival.

Mumbai: Vodafone Essar, one of India?s leading telecommunications service providers and Sony Music jointly announced an innovative new offering for the die-hard enthusiasts of International Music. Through this initiative, Vodafone is offering its customers a chance to win exciting prizes everyday by subscribing to a Sony Music International caller tune and answering simple questions through SMS. This initiative is a nationwide contest and will run till 26th October, 2011.

To participate in the competition, Vodafone customers have to set any song from SONY music?s deep catalogue of International songs as their Caller tune by calling 12377 (Toll free).On successful download, the subscribers will be eligible to participate and will have to answer a series of questions via SMS on 54345 (toll free). The participating subscribers can win by answering questions correctly in shortest time frame to win daily, weekly and bumper prizes. Three selected grand prize winners will be awarded LED TV each, 6 weekly winners will be awarded an iPad2 each while 45 daily winners will be awarded with iPod Touch.

Speaking on this initiative, Arjun Sankalia, Director: International Music & Special Products said "International music has witnessed a huge surge in India and artists like Shakira, Pitbull, Beyonce have become extremely popular across age groups. Our association with Vodafone will provide music aficionados access to new international music and also win some exciting prizes."

Commenting on this innovative offering, Kumar Ramanathan, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone Essar Ltd., said "We are glad to be associated with Sony Music as they have a global approach and offer the best of international music. This initiative is line with our constant endeavor in offering unique and differentiated experience to our customers through our various products and initiatives. With International music gaining immense popularity in India; customers can now listen to popular songs from their favorite artists and also share the same with their friends."