Rivals butt heads over super-phones

By IRENE CHAPPLE

The marketing battle to win the hearts of cellphone users will intensify when Vodafone starts its advertising campaign for Vodafone Live! on Monday.

Telecom started its heavily advertised Xtra mobile services campaign almost two weeks ago.

The Telecom campaign shows an 027 phone as a magnet for such topics as art, sport and music.

That campaign came over the top of its G027 push, aimed at moving 025 users onto the more advanced 027 network.

But the fight will be on in earnest when Vodafone starts its Live! campaign, previewed over the past week with a public relations drive that included giving away about 300 Live!-compatible mobiles that sell for almost $1000.

Vodafone Live! combines picture and text messaging and allows the user to download news, maps, weather and webcam pictures.

Communications manager Sarah Williams says the campaign launch is the biggest thing since text was introduced in 2000, and the phone giveaway was the best way to give people a feel for what the product did.

Vodafone's director of brand for the Pacific region, Chris Taylor, says the tactic cost about 10 per cent of the campaign's budget of "a few million".

The logic behind it is to get people talking and showing the phones to others.

"You know the old thing of six degrees of separation ... and in New Zealand it's about three. Everyone knows someone who knows someone, and they'll tell them [about the phone] and they'll be able to show them, too."

Taylor says the launch was not like a traditional advertising campaign.

"Of course it has a kick-off up front, but it's not a one-off campaign.

"This is a major global initiative and there will be a phase two and three before the end of the year, then a phase four next year.

"This is a completely new way of looking at things."

The campaign includes television, press, cinema, billboard, internet and direct-marketing advertising.

Although the campaign closely follows Telecom's, Taylor says it is not reactive.

Vodafone's campaign, which is international, started in Britain last year.

Taylor says Live! is not comparable with Telecom's product.

"We're not particularly focused on what they are doing, and customers will have to find out whether someone has more depth than just an advertising campaign."

Telecom spokeswoman Linda Sanders says the company's phones have technological capabilities equalling those of Vodafone, and can reach half a million New Zealanders through Telecom's Xtra internet service provider.

The G027 campaign, started last month, will continue, she says.

Sanders says research has shown G027's cut-though - or public attention to the campaign - is high.

The rationale of running the two campaigns together is to have each supporting the message of the other, she says.

"The G027 asks people to imagine where your mobile could go, and the ... Xtra mobile services have followed that up by demonstrating some of these possibilities."