The battle for summer
If you had to judge the winner of the annual cat-fight between the cellphone companies for market share, your decision might come down to the popularity of the jingles they use in their advertising campaigns.
The combatants are coy about revealing how many new subscribers they’ve attracted in the free-for-all environment of number portability, but what do the pop charts say?
MTN used the song Put your hands up, by Mary J Blige. It hit a high of number 11 on the 5FM charts and has been in the Top 40 for nine weeks.
Vodacom’s summer campaign, Yebo Fever, used its Mo the Meerkat character hamming it up to the dance tune Gasolina, which peaked on 5FM at number 19 last month.
Nobody, it appears from dipstick research, can quite remember what songs Virgin Mobile and Cell C used to anchor their campaigns so, on the basis of pop appeal, it’s a dead-heat between traditional rivals MTN and Vodacom.
All the combatants did their best through sponsorship and competitions to offer potential customers winning deals – mixed with a dash of corporate responsibility.
Marketing campaigns and promotions were spread far and wide, and consumers couldn’t escape messages on the beach emblazoned on banners and branded umbrellas.
Vodacom focused mainly on elements that would instil loyalty and drive sales, said André Beyers, the company’s managing brand and advertising executive.
The group ran several competitions. Consumers could win one of 20 Opel Corsas, and on top of that the group gave away a voucher to the value of R20,000 to "pimp up" the car.
Air tickets were given away. And there was the Clifton beach challenge and the annual surf life-saving championships.
Music events included one with Robbie Wessels, who did the "Leeuloop" rugby ad for the company last year. And people were hired to clean up 28 beaches around the country.
Beyers said the group had a "fantastic" sales month in December but would not give figures.
"We did better than last year. We had more exposure and more activity."
MTN was the broadcast sponsor of the domestic cricket championship and of the one-day international series in the MTN summer series on SuperSport.
Apart from sponsoring soccer and running several competitions, the company ran concerts around the country, including some featuring hip-hop and jazz.
Ntombi Mhangwani, media relations manager at MTN SA, declined to comment on sales.
Vanda Harries, senior brand manager at Cell C, said the company had thrown its efforts into "freedom of choice".
"We wanted to educate consumers by showing them what cellphone number portability is about. We decided to personify the cellphone number – people have a great attachment to their numbers.
"The biggest barrier to people switching cellphone networks is that they don’t want to lose their numbers – but people can now move without losing their number.
"The campaign shows this in an emotional way, with a man not wanting to leave his 10 little friends behind at the airport."
Cell C did a full above-the-line campaign and made sure that all its stores carried the theme consistently. It ran several competitions to which the so-called "little people" at the airport were linked.
Another competition, which will run until the end of this month, offers the chance of winning one of two Dodge Calibers.
"We have a lot of exciting projects in the pipeline but we’re not at liberty to share any of it at this point. We’re working on some really big ideas. It’s very much about ensuring that we deliver value for money to our customer," said Harries.
Harries said it was far too early to assess the results of the festive season campaigns.
Though Virgin Mobile did not run a specific festive season theme, it launched new TV, radio and press campaigns, highlighting its best all-day rate on pre-paid subscriptions.
Music, said the company’s SA chief executive, Peter Boyd, was "part of our heritage". Boyd took up his position in SA in December after 10 years with Virgin in the UK and US.
The scramble for visibility, however, did not win many admirers among the marketing and advertising folk.
Wingwing Mdlulwa, creative director of Twist, didn’t think there was a very strong single-minded festive season campaign comparable to the campaigns of previous years.
"If I had to choose one that was memorable, it would be MTN’s," he said.
"It was helped by a very powerful soundtrack. But I have doubts about its overall effectiveness and message. If I had not seen the MTN logo, I could have mistaken it for a deodorant ad."
Ouch.
Another industry strategist, who perhaps wisely declined to be named, said: "There’s so much noise it’s difficult to hear. I’m not sure of the quality of customer they’re acquiring and at what expense. Quite possibly they have each other in their viewfinders , as opposed to just the customer.
"The amount of yelling and shouting, and the way it was done, has to be a good example of communication at its worst."
Business Times
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