Rhys Darby launches 2degrees business

2degrees’ chief executive Eric Hertz says it’s the launch into business services, and products such as the $149 plan and CarryOver Minutes that are behind the company’s success. So where are they defecting from? The NBR says they are mainly ex Telecom, which has posted the massive loss of 95,000 customers in one quarter, followed by Vodafone, reportedly down 50,000 in six months according to their most recent customer number updates.

The team at 2degrees has also grown – to more than 545 humans, with the most expansion in customer service and sales staff.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the year ahead, 2degrees hopes to poach even more customers with the promise of more plans like the recently announced $19 Data Combo, the $149 plan, and CarryOver Minutes. Of course, having national treasure Rhys Darby as brand ambassador, starring in some of the funniest ads around won’t do any harm either. Check out the latest Darbulous effort above.

NBR’s TOTAL NZ MOBILE CONNECTIONS

Vodafone: 2,434,000
Telecom:  2,079,000
2degrees: 875,656
MVNOs: 50,000

The numbers clearly show a large number of the population have more than one mobile phone account and/or data devices with SIM cards.

By using the new TimeOut App, readers are able to bring the content to life by accessing content such as 3D images, video and audio tracks, and bridging the gap between print and digital media.  App users also get the latest Entertainment news, reviews and a ‘Near Me’ events guide which uses location based services to find events on nearby.

Spencer Bailey, general manager  of APN Online says, “Launching a sustainable interactive print product with the TimeOut App is a New Zealand first and something we’re really proud of.  It showcases the very best of print and digitally-led content and allows users to interact with the TimeOut brand in a new and innovative way.”

TimeOut’s editor Russell Baillie adds, “TimeOut is a weekly destination for our readers and the app enhances this experience through augmented reality, video and 3D imagery. Extending the TimeOut brand onto mobile reflects the increased demand from our readers who want to access our content every day of the week.”

Augmented reality, you’ll remember, is the overlaying of computer-generated content on a live view of the world (here’s a few fine examples). Some of you probably have AR business cards. AR’s been around for a while.  In 2009 Esquire magazine brought Robert Downey Jnr to life on their cover, and in 2010 42 Below augmented their vodka with a point of sale project called Fat-boy, where viewers were sent on a spiritual journey into what the 42BELOW folks call “an alternate 42BELOW world”.

“Augmented reality takes something very simple, in this case a small pattern on a neck tag, and creates something interactive on a computer display,” said spokeshuman Jacob Pearson at the time.

This year Fairfax pushed the parameters of print advertising by inserting a credit card-sized video screen into a magazine as part of a $250,000 marketing campaign for Peroni – creating a ‘world-first’ TV commercial inserted into print magazine. The screens, which showed a three-and-a-half minute video, were hand placed in 2,500 editions of Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

But it’s still a fairly fringe technology here in New Zealand.  Steinlager launched an iPhone app back in June that allowed fans to track down bars that are showing the rugby (Steinlager bars only, of course) by using a map-based or augmented reality bar finder that runs off the iPhone’s GPS. And Vodafone have just rolled out augmented reality T-shirts for New Zealand music month.

But is there a risk that we’ll all become AR’d out – that it will become boring as advert after advert invites us to hold it up to a webcam? “What’s hot today is ancient history tomorrow,” says Andy Cameron, executive director of Fabrica, an interactive design studio at the forefront of AR technology.  ”There have been a lot of bad uses of this technology with a rush to use it.  The key is that it should be an enhancement of the stuff on the printed page.”

So – expect more enhanced reality as print continues its foray back to the future.

News that Vodafone and Colenso BBDO had parted ways popped up in early August and Clemenger Group duly shifted resources to .99 to handle the account during the RFP phase. Rumours were circling that DraftFCB, which had only recently won the Orcon account off Special Group, was involved in an initial pitch for the business, along with Origami.

Executive creative director James Mok wouldn’t comment on the Vodafone pitch or the agency’s relationship with Orcon, but Orcon has confirmed the account has been resigned. It’s a risky move, but it makes sense when a juicier slab of business is up for grabs and it makes even more sense given DraftFCB is on a roll, with its Genius promotion for Orcon almost too successful for its own good and a big haul at the Effies for its social marketing efforts. Plus, Orcon is renowned as a fairly difficult client.

An interesting aspect of this pitch is that there appears to have been a global alignment with Vodafone and WPP agencies in some major overseas markets. In New Zealand that’s Ogilvy, Y&R and JWT, but a pitch between those three could have been slightly farcical.

Ogilvy’s executive director Paul Manning wouldn’t talk, citing a confidentiality clause, but Ogilvy has a history of servicing big, complex accounts and has plenty of wind in its sails after a few big account wins. Still, as everyone saw with the DDB vs Saatchi & Saatchi saga during the Cadbury pitch, New Zealand is often a different kettle of fish because of its diminutive stature, so global alignments certainly don’t mean it’s assured and, if it was, it would be unfair on the other competing agencies.

As for Clemenger Group, chief executive Jim Moser was confident he’d be on the winning side back in August. “It’s not going to be easy. But we know this business. And we’re good at it,” he said. But given the recent attention Vodafone has received from the ASA and the Commerce Commission for misleading and irresponsible advertising, you do wonder if Clems might have burned their bridges on this one.

Affinity ID’s Angela Day said “she’d probably have to no comment that one” when asked about the rumoured joint indie effort with Federation. Affinity ID is particularly strong, with an impressive client list and a good run on the awards front of late, but it remains to be seen whether Vodafone will be patient enough to wait for a smaller agency like Federation to grow or whether it wants some agency firepower straight away.

A decision is expected to be made before Christmas.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Smartphones, as the Web Vision video says, have eyes and ears, so the Vodafone app, which was created by Smudge Apps in Christchurch and can be downloaded at the Android Market, at the iTunes app store or by texting music to 898, allows users to hold up their phone, bring a t-shirt graphic to life and play Avalanche City’s latest single “You and I”.

1200 t-shirts have been made and hundreds of them will be worn for the next few weeks by Vodafone retail staff in the lead up to the awards at Vector Arena on November 3.

“Today’s technology is pretty incredible and we wanted to find a way of connecting our passion for Kiwi music with our love of cool innovation, while having some fun,” says Vodafone general manager of brand and communications, Suraiya Phillimore-Smith. “We know that Android and iPhone users are going to love seeing this in action in Vodafone retail stores. Our staff are going to be flat out standing around as customers point phones at their t-shirts.”

Music fans can also download the Avalanche City single straight to their smartphone via the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards app. In addition the app features highlights from the 2010 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards and finalist profiles.

The judges said “it only took a few words to simply explain what it’s all about – no asterisks or long copy and nice humour too.”

The Ad of the Month judges for September were Andy Hollis – Platform29 and Elwyn Pugsley – Procreation.

Credits for September’s winning ad are:

Agency: .99

Executive Creative Director: Craig Whitehead

Creative Director: Paul Hankinson

Creative team: Edward Bell, Mel Brooks, Amy Cattanach, Charlotte Henry.
Account Service: Helen Prangley, Jodene Murphy.

.99’s creative team receive $250 with the ad sponsored by the NAB into the 2012 Axis Awards. The ad also becomes a finalist in the 2011/12 $10,000 Newspaper Ad of Year competition. Any ad that’s run in any newspaper around the country is eligible to enter the competition. (Email ideas@nabs.co.nz for competition details.)

The 15-second ad for Supe Prepay minutes cuts away just before the knife goes into the top of the toaster and, rather ironically given the number of shocks Vodafone customers seem to have been getting recently, finishes with the line “Bonus weekend minutes when you top up on Supa Prepay: another way to get more than you bargained for.”

Multiple complaints were received about the ad, largely based around the fact that if it was copied by anyone it would result in electocution or at least a serious shock. And while Vodafone didn’t believe it shoud be upheld, it removed the ad from the air in response to the concerns.

The script and scenario was viewed by the Commercials Approval Bureau, which classified the advertisement as “GXC”, which allowed it to be broadcast at any time except during programmes that are intended specifically for children under the age of 13.

The submission said: “Vodafone believes that it is well known that to put a knife in a toaster may result in electric shock. The advertisement was aimed at adults, who would understand this, and the reference to getting more than you bargained for. This was not meant to, nor does Vodafone believe it does, show a situation in a way which encourages a disregard for safety. This advertisement was intended as a tongue in cheek reference to a well-known situation.”

The Complaints Board considered that the advertisement contained a visual presentation of a potentially dangerous situation and encouraged a disregard for safety. The Complaints Board agreed the implication from the advertisement was that the actor was about to put the bread knife down the toaster to retrieve the toast which could result in an electric shock, and whilst the Complaints Board acknowledged the intention of the accompanying tagline and the rating of the advertisement, in its view this did not save the advertisement from depicting a potentially dangerous ‘everyday’ situation. Accordingly, the Complaints Board considered that the advertisement was in breach of Rule 12 of the Code of Ethics and did not observe the due sense of social responsibility required by Basic Principle 4 of the Code of Ethics.

]]> http://www.stoppress.co.nz/news/2011/10/asa-keeps-vodafone-in-the-dogbox/feed/ 1 http://www.stoppress.co.nz/news/2011/08/vodafone-tripped-up-by-the-fair-trading-act-ordered-to-pay-fines-to-the-tune-of-400k/ http://www.stoppress.co.nz/news/2011/08/vodafone-tripped-up-by-the-fair-trading-act-ordered-to-pay-fines-to-the-tune-of-400k/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:21:13 +0000 StopPress Team http://www.stoppress.co.nz/?p=28076 It seems not all is well and fair in land of telco advertising. While Vodafone may be busy reviewing its agency partners, the Commerce Commission has been busy reviewing Vodafone over allegations it has been misleading customers with its broadband and mobile phone promotions between 2006 and 2009. Six cases have been brought up against Vodafone and the first of those to reach court has resulted in the telco being fined $402,375 plus court costs late last week after it pleaded guilty to breaching the Fair Trading Act in relation to its Vodafone Live! mobile phone internet service. Vodafone says it will defend the charges for the remaining five cases.

Between May 2007 and July 2008, Vodafone made a number of claims on its website about Vodafone Live!, a service that gives mobile phone users access to a range of internet-based functions via their mobile phone. Vodafone claimed that Vodafone Live! was “free to browse” and that customers would be notified before incurring any charges for downloading or purchasing products or services.

Vodafone Live! was described by Vodafone as a ‘walled garden’, in which its customers could access products and services offered for free by Vodafone without incurring the usual costs related to accessing the wider internet.

Customers were in fact not charged when roaming within the confines of the Vodafone Live! Service, that much is true. The problem arose when customers left Vodafone Live! The Commerce Commission says customers were not adequately notified that they had left and therefore incurred charges for downloading and purchasing products or services.

Add to that the fact that the Vodafone Live!’ heading was displayed as a banner across the top of the screen on many Vodafone mobile phones, even when the user had left Vodafone Live!, and you really start to see the case build up. Customers who thought they were using a free service were instead being charged at the casual data rate of $11.25 per megabyte (MB). At the time, an average song download of 4MB (using the standard MP3 compressed format) would have cost approximately $45 to download.

Commission Competition manager Stuart Wallace says the fact that customers assumed they were using the Vodafone Live! service when they weren’t, so didn’t know they were being charged, and the high cost for data, resulted in significant “bill shock” for some customers. One complainant to the Commission was charged over $1,300.

“It is unclear just how many customers were affected, as Vodafone did not keep detailed records of complaints. But Vodafone has agreed that it was likely to have involved significant numbers of its customers and large amounts of money. This was a serious design flaw which resulted in many customers incurring unwanted costs,” he says.

Vodafone has since gone on to refund some affected customers and has changed the way it promotes its Vodafone Live! Service. And while it has also changed how it charges for data services, Wallace says Vodafone was slow to respond to the problem, with the offending continuing over a 14 month period. Refunds were given reluctantly and on an inconsistent basis. One of the complainants to the Commission was only refunded in July this year as a result of a reminder from the Commission. In addition, some prepay customers may not have been aware that they had lost credit in this way.

“In this case, the Vodafone Live! service was new to the market. Vodafone paid insufficient attention to how customers would be likely to use the service and the language used to promote the service blurred the line as to what was actually free,” says Wallace.

Moser says it’s been four of five years since Vodafone last conducted a review (PR and media is not affected), so the timing is about right. But after talking to the marketing team the focus of the next few months will be on Christmas. As a result, there will be less brand work to be done and more retail work and .99 is better suited to be the management hub.

The contract with Vodafone, he says, is with the Clemenger Group, not just Colenso, so he says he’s listened to what Vodafone wanted and moved troops to where they’re needed most in an attempt to better serve its needs while it still has the business and, more importantly, improve its chances of retaining the account when it goes to pitch.

This decision means there will be eight redundancies at Colenso (he says they wanted to keep some in the group, but they chose to take redundancy instead) and 12 people have been moved from AIM Proximity and Colenso to work at .99 on Vodafone.

“We’ll participate in this pitch. And we’ll win it,” he says. “It’s not going to be easy. But we know this business. And we’re good at it.”

We mentioned a year or so ago when .99 retained the New World account that there was some speculation Vodafone could eventually head the same way as Air New Zealand. We received a few stern phone calls from the Colenso bods saying that wasn’t the case for our trouble. And while Moser admits .99 did very well during the recession as clients were looking for short-term sales increases, he doesn’t think the brand/retail hybrid snatching business off its more creative sibling could be considered a trend. As he points out, Colenso has also had its biggest period of growth in the past three years, so there seems to be room for both models.

Despite some friendly rivalry between the two agencies in the past, Colenso will offer assistance if it is required during the pitch, so that having much knowledge should make it a good contender.

Still, you can play a good game and lose and BBH lost the Vodafone account in the UK in June because of a global supply chain agreement. It was then pitched among WPP agencies, so that trend might continue here.

It appears the original rumour that Origami, which already works on Vodafone projects, and DraftFCB, which probably won’t be in the good books with its newish telco client Orcon, were involved in the first round of pitching was correct. But it’s not known if they’re in the next round.

UPDATE: The local WPP agencies consist of Y&R, Ogilvy, JWT and BCG2 (20 percent stake). It’s unsure if they will all be putting their hands up, but Assignment Group, which has a connection to JWT, is apparently staying away due to its work with TelstraClear.

Clemenger high priest Jim Moser is currently overseas and won’t be back until next week. But managing director Nick Garrett said “as far as we’re concerned, it’s business as usual right now”, with the agency presenting a lot of work for a new brand idea and several briefs currently being worked on.

According to our sources, it all kicked off when Vodafone’s new head of marketing Greg Campbell, who replaced temporary marketing chief Russell Stanners after he took over from Mark Rushworth, came in looking to shake things up and find the best agency for the job. It is thought there was a pitch a couple of weeks ago, with rumoured contenders of DraftFCB, Origami (which has some solid connections to Vodafone) and Colenso. No decision appears to have been made yet and there is a wider industry pitch on the horizon, possibly without any involvement from Colenso or Vodafone’s retail agency Clemenger-owned .99 (new chief executive Craig Whitehead is yet to return our call).

Garrett would neither confirm or deny any of our source’s information. He stuck to the ‘business as usual’ statement and said it would be best to wait for Moser’s return to get an official comment on the Vodafone issue and whether there will be any Clemenger involvement in the business in the future, but it’s safe to assume there is quite a bit of uncertainty there.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Vodafone is Colenso’s biggest account (it spent $20.2 million on advertising in 2010 and $9.5 million to the end of June this year, according to Nielsen AIS data) and it has had the business for four years, creating notable campaigns like Fold, Symphonia and In with the New.

With 2degrees currently ramping up its post-pay offerings—and increasing its market share—Telecom getting set to embark on a costly split (and possibly even a complete rebrand for the new retail arm) and Vodafone seemingly putting the feelers out for a new agency partner, the telco scene is a very interesting place to be right now.

UPDATED: Vodafone’s head of corporate communications Sarah Newcombe got back to us with this statement.

Vodafone is reviewing its marketing partner relationships and will be inviting a small number of agencies to respond to an RFP.

Chief Marketing Officer Greg Campbell says the review, which began some months ago, will encompass all of Vodafone’s marketing agencies, excluding Spark phd, Spark IQ and Blue Star, which are globally appointed.

“Like any company operating in a highly competitive, fast paced market, we believe it is good practice to review strategic partnerships from time to time.  We started this review some months ago and it is part of our normal cycle of activities.

“Vodafone has a very proud history of innovation in marketing and, together with Colenso as our lead agency, we have sparked New Zealanders’ imaginations with campaigns such as Fold, Symphonia (the text message symphony), and Double Rainbow.

Campbell says Vodafone has enjoyed a very successful partnership with Colenso over the past four years and the companies will be working closely over the next few months as they move through the review.

“We will be looking to all our agencies – across multiple disciplines – to test us as much as we test them in this process, by helping us deliver the sorts of innovative ideas that Kiwis love and expect from the Vodafone brand.”

The review will be completed by mid-October 2011.