The man who changed Cell C forever
Former Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt disrupted the South African mobile market by positioning the mobile operator as a disruptive force.
He is widely credited with shifting Cell C from a struggling me-too operator into an aggressive competitor to Vodacom and MTN.
Reichelt started his career as a consultant at Monitor Deloitte and later held numerous executive roles in the ICT industry.
These roles include managing director at Orange Austria, managing director at Yahoo’s wireless division, and CEO of Telefonica Mobile.
In March 2009, he left Europe to take the helm at Cell C. At that stage, the mobile operator was struggling to make ends meet and was not competitive.
It was seen as the poor man’s alternative to Vodacom and MTN, with an inferior network and products, and a brand which was not exciting.
Under his leadership, Cell C grew its customer base from 6.4 million subscribers to 8.9 million and significantly improved its financial performance.
He increased revenue to R10.2 billion and grew earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) by 75% to R1.4 billion.
He orchestrated a famous and often controversial rebranding campaign featuring comedian Trevor Noah as the Customer Experience Officer (CEO).
This successfully changed the public perception of Cell C from a budget underdog to a modern, customer-centric challenger.
Reichelt spearheaded the rollout of a 900 MHz HSPA+ network, which enabled Cell C to leapfrog competitors in mobile broadband speeds at the time.
Before he started rolling out this network, Cell C could not compete against Vodacom and MTN in the mobile broadband market.
Using this new network, Cell C launched aggressively priced data promotions, which started a mobile data price war in South Africa.
He broke Vodacom and MTN’s multi-year duopoly, where their data prices tracked each other without much choice.
These developments changed South Africa’s telecommunications market forever, significantly lowering the cost of data for consumers.
Cell C got a new logo and brand refresh
Under Reichelt, Cell C received its first brand refresh since its launch in 2001. It was one of the most successful marketing turnarounds in South African corporate history.
He retired the old “For Yourself” tagline and red-and-blue logo, replacing them with the famous black-and-orange “C” in a circle and the slogan “The Power is in Your Hands.”
The logo featured a six-colour bar representing the South African flag, signalling a shift toward being a proudly local, inclusive brand.
Reichelt didn’t just change a logo. He completely overhauled the company’s identity to position it as a consumer champion.
In August 2010, Reichelt launched a campaign featuring comedian Trevor Noah, whose star was on the rise.
It began with a video of Noah ranting about Cell C’s poor service during a stand-up routine that went viral on social media, followed by full-page apology letters from Reichelt in national newspapers.
Reichelt then hired Noah as the new CEO (Customer Experience Officer). While many suspected it, it was later confirmed that the whole campaign was an engineered marketing stunt.
It successfully created a dialogue with customers and forced the company to be more transparent about its network flaws.
He also controversially marketed Cell C’s new HSPA+ network as 4G, which was technically inaccurate.
This sparked a battle with Vodacom and MTN, who accused him of misleading customers into thinking Cell C had an LTE/4G network.
Reichelt leaned into the controversy, using the media attention to further highlight Cell C’s improved speeds.
His efforts culminated in him being named the Marketer of the Year at the 2011 AdReview Awards.
Lars Reichelt’s life after Cell C
Reichelt resigned with immediate effect in July 2011, citing personal reasons for stepping down as Cell C chief executive.
His departure was followed by several other high-level executive exits, sparking much industry speculation at the time.
Following his departure from Cell C, Reichelt continued to hold leadership roles in the telecommunications and IT sectors.
He was appointed chief executive of Georgia’s leading mobile operator, Magticom, in 2012, and focused on making the company more customer-focused.
Under his guidance, Magticom reclaimed the top position after 8 years at number two, increasing its market share from 39% to 44%.
He served as Digicel FWI chief executive from July 2022 to June 2023, where he was responsible for seven Caribbean and Indian Ocean markets.
Reichelt accelerated network improvements through a RAN-sharing agreement with Free, increasing coverage by 10%.
This agreement reduced dropped calls by 15% and improved data throughput by 60%, which improved the customer experience tremendously.
Today, he serves as managing director of RA Advisors, where he helps CEOs, founders, boards, and investors with strategy and commercial transformation.
His focus is on fibre and broadband networks and digital platforms, with a strong emphasis on European countries.
Cell C’s Trevor Noah campaign
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