It’s been a rough ride, and with the whiff of restructure in the air, there will undoubtedly be a bit more roughness to come. But Telecom has steadied the ship in 2012 and, with Jason Paris at the helm and a resurgent Saatchi & Saatchi helping to create one of the best campaigns of the year, it is starting to get back on the goodfoot from a brand and storytelling point of view. Head of brand and insights Charlotte Findlay takes the stage.
With the country’s two biggest telcos each releasing big new brand campaigns at the same time, we thought we’d compare and contrast some of the follow up work. So, dear StopPress friends, who do you think is winning the communications battle at this early stage?
We had a chat with Telecom’s chief marketing officer Jason Paris yesterday for a profile that will feature in the next edition of NZ Marketing magazine and he said one of the best things about the new Tommy and Boris work is the fact that everyone thinks it’s a brand campaign. That’s understandable, given the set-up ad is the only one that has been released so far. But it’s actually a retail platform that’s being used to promote different aspects of the Telecom business. And the first examples of that strategy were launched last night, with one spot focusing on ‘New Zealand’s best pre-paid pack’ and another classy number showing some of the lesser known benefits of broadband.
It would seem only those with a heart of stone could fail to be swayed by Telecom’s latest brand campaign starring excitable eight-year-old Tommy and his new turtle friend Boris. We reckon it’s one of the best ads of the year and it sees Telecom heading back to its heartland territory of connectivity and New Zealandness. Here’s what chief marketing officer Jason Paris had to say about the thinking behind the campaign—and the state of the company.
Around this time last year there was a glut of ‘manvertising’. And this year it seems as though cute kids are de rigueur, with Civil Defence, Z and Pink Batts all recently enlisting a few young’uns to tell their stories. Now Telecom can be added to that list, because it’s gone back to what it knows best with a great ode to connection featuring a lovable frontman Tommy and his ‘turtle of few words’ Boris.