Neotel nails Telkom in ad campaign

Cell C recently launched an advertising campaign poking fun at Vodacom’s new red rebranding – an initiative which gained support among consumers despite Vodacom lodging a successful complaint with the ASA about Cell C’s advertising.

Cell C’s campaign enjoyed a great deal of attention – partly because of the continued spat between Cell C and Vodacom – but Cell C was not the only company taking aim at their main competitor. 

As the Cell C ads hit the media Neotel was already nailing taking Telkom in its latest advertising campaign.

In Neotel’s radio advertisements the company highlights the fact that mobile termination rates were recently reduced, and that they passed these savings on to their subscribers.

“ICASA recently passed legislation that are kind of hard to explain in a radio ad,” the adverts narrator says.  “Basically it means that all phone companies have had their mobile rates cut … which is awesome.”

“Naturally Neotel chose to extend this benefit to you, the customer.  Our biggest competitor? … well … they didn’t. Not so awesome.”

“For a home phone with the lowest call rates in South Africa, call Neotel or visit Neotel.co.za,” the ad continues.

In another radio ad Neotel hits Telkom even harder.  “Here is an interesting little tongue-twister.  It is cheaper to make a phone call from Neotel to our biggest competitor than it is for our biggest competitor to call themselves on their own network,” the ad states. 

“Ridiculous, I know! But considering who we are talking about here it is not entirely unexpected,” the ad concludes.

Neotel announced fixed-to-mobile call rate reductions on 1 March after mobile interconnect rate cuts kicked in, but Telkom is yet to do the same.

New Telkom CEO Pinky Moholi recently told analysts that they have decided not to pass on the total interconnect savings to retail pricing.

Moholi added that people can expect Telkom to pass on between 50% and 70% of the savings this time around, but she would not commit on when these price reductions would kick in.

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