Vodacom sees red over Cell C taunts

Cutaway of a Cell C ad in Sunday newspapers

Cell C is ratcheting up its marketing war with rival Vodacom, launching a new advertising campaign targeting the latter’s rebranding to the red identity of its parent Vodafone.

But Vodacom has already hit back, filing a complaint against its smaller rival at the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), accusing Cell C of “disparaging” its brand and products.

A television ad in the new Cell C campaign, featuring its “chief experience officer”, comedian Trevor Noah, derides Vodacom’s brand changes as superficial and claiming to have the country’s best network.

In the ad, Noah walks alongside an old sports car, half spray-painted in red. “Recently, a 17-year-old cell network changes their colours. Nice, but what’s actually under the hood?”

Noah is seen walking up to a new, black Ferrari. “It takes more than a lick of paint to be SA’s number one network, don’t you think?”

Then, on Sunday, Cell C ran prominent newspaper advertisements again taking aim at Vodacom. “Who’s the leader now?” screams the headline. “It seems a major cell network may have stopped calling themselves leading. Perhaps they learnt about Cell C’s leading and completely new HSPA+900 network.”

The ads have angered Vodacom, which has lodged a detailed complaint against Cell C with the ASA.

The Cell C television ad that’s angered Vodacom:

ASA communications manager Corné Koch confirms that the authority received a complaint from Vodacom on Friday. “The main complaint from Vodacom is that Cell C is disparaging the Vodacom brand and its products,” Koch says. “Further, [it wants] Cell C [to] substantiate the claims of being the superior network in the SA industry.”

Koch says the ASA will investigate the matter.

Comparative advertising in SA is tightly regulated under ASA rules. The authority has had to field a growing number of complaints from cellular operators in recent months, especially complaints involving Cell C and Vodacom. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral

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The_Librarian

Anybody got some popcorn? This is going to be very interesting.
BritinSA

Is it illegal to be disparaging about competitors? If it is, then it shouldn’t be. Nothing stimulates competition like criticism.

You can bawl like a babe, or you can turn your mind to upstaging your competitor!
david

come on cell c, focus on your products. I gave up waiting for a speedstick from cell c cresta. I even sent a personal email to Lars and he has not responded. Sent another complaint to tell trevor and all i received was an acknowledgement that they received it. Two weeks and still waiting for an actual response. I have Vodacom line and whenever i have issues they get solved immediately. Now a frank advice to Cell C, spend more on customer service and less on adverts. At the end of the day, a real leader is measured according to number of subscribers, ARPU and customers service. At the moment, in my opinion, you are trailing in all three.
Andrew

Not to be an anorak but the Ferrari is a F430, which went out of production in 2009…
http://www.opality.co.za Brad

I reckon the next big move is going to be of Neotel coming to the party much to the same effect as Cell C re-emerged from potential ashes…
Ultimately competition will stimulate the market and increase transparency to the end users- Consumer can finally win! Entrepreneurship will thrive with cheaper telecoms!
Andre

Have to wonder whether it was the right move, strategically, to run off to the school principal…
david

Don’t take this personally Cell C but i’m just thinking out loud. If i was part of the vodacom ad department. this would be my reply. “Some network recently upgraded their network for the first time in donkey years and now thinks its got the bragging rights of a being the leader in the industry. Its like a varsity student who completes a BA degree after 8 years, gets a job, buys a car and thinks he can now lead the boys”.
mlungisi

Come on Vodacom, don’t be cry baby. This is all good fun and no harm is made or intended. Why noT come with a comeback. You can always out-advertise CellC, surely.
Michelle Kalkwarf

Forgot “Days of our lives” – love this juicy show down!
James

@Brad. Not sure if there is enough consumer facing smarts at Neotel to be able to deliver a broad commercial solution. The ineptness of their marketing department is well known, and they don’t have the marketing skills to pull it off.
dr.zeek

Problem is that vodacom/phone/bomb/bone is (very cleverly, i might say) positioning itself as the “home of the smartphone” or similar…(forecasted smartphone sales are 1BN over next 12 months)

We all know what happened to AT&T’s network in the US when it tried to do the same with the iphone [it bombed, big time].

So, this cellc advert goes to the very HEART of voda’s (re-)positioning. THAT’S the reason for running to ASA, would be my guess.

Anyway, let the competition continue unabated! Better for all of us long-suffering customers!!!
John

Have to agree with david. Lars should focus on fixing his network and stop trying to be the second Nando’s.

And now Vodacom have undercut Cell C by 50%, selling 4GB of data for R149 per month. Half of Cell C’s “special”.

Let’s see Cell C respond to that! They kept on pushing Vodacom with these misleading advertisments (Vodacom won every single Cell C case at the ASA so far) and clearly have p!ssed them off.

@ libs, agree! Bring on the popcorn.
http://securethink.blogspot.com Allen Baranov

I don’t think this is supposed to be a long term advert. It was probably a “lets see if we can get away with it” advert and if the ASA bans it at least Cell-C got it shown a few times and managed to get some press out of it (and it will be on YouTube forever).

The thing is that even neutral 3rd parties are saying exactly what this advert is “Whats new for Vodacom besides being red?”
Sigrid

John , looks like you and David should get to together to surf the net, no surprises on the sites you’ll be visiting . Also in future like capitec bank ads , read the fine print and t&C’s , the additional Gig’s from Vodacom is from 12- 5am, probably very handy for creepy guys-Like ????
david

@John thanks for the vodacom 4GB info. now i’m so glad i never got a cell c contract. Now i’ll just have to wait till month end then go for a vodacom contract. I love this game.
STB

Love Sigrid’s comment , in addition, anyone waiting till monthend ( Payday)to afford R149 should’nt be posting comments. I hope this does’nt make David see ‘Red’.
david

@STB. Well, the future is red. Just wait and see. By the way, the offer is only valid from the first of May, so we all have to wait till month end to be able to enjoy this promotion. @Sigrid. I know of the extra gigs available between 12-5am. There is no surprise there.
Lars P Reichelt

@David, if you actually sent me an e-mail pls. send it again… and I will gladly help you out.
Trick Starr

I think Cell C is over doing it and it’s just too disgusting. D o we need to remind them that they stood on Vodacom’s sholders when they came into existance without their own infrastructure. The very same “CEO” who’s fronting for them, used to be so disgusted about thier network that he will somehow find a way of bringing it up in most of his Stand Ups. No heart feeling Cell C, just don’t over do it cos it becomes boring!!
Snoop

Vodacom is just being a cry baby, i cannot believe that you are actually crying or is cellc scaring you? lol
Thato

Oh come on Vodacom you used to have a lot more of a sense of humour!Or are you guys completely English now?

@ John-From both sides, its all really smoke and mirrors.Vodacom’s (limited time) promotion undercuts Cell C by 41 %, not 50%, when the deal lapses by those who didn’t get it the difference only translates to roughly 17 %.One point to Vodacom though.
Both are running at 7.2Mbps, both are upgrading to 21.6Mbps, so you’re either stuck at 7Mbps for 12 months with Vodacom or are along the line upgraded to 21Mbps on the Cell C’s once-ff cash deal.That one goes to Cell C I think.

There is not much of a difference between red Cell C and black Cell C; or between red Vodacom and blue Vodacom, so since nobody here is really getting the supposed benefits of the changes, we might as well enjoy the theatrics.
Stephen

They’re all rubbish – the whole lot of them. Not one tiny bit of service in sight. The consumer should fight back and move to Telkom for a month or two. Maybe then we’ll see some real action instead of all this (costly to the consumer) advertising crap that no one really cares about anyway. Biggest rip off ever.
John

@Thato – Anyway you cut it it, the Vodacom deal is better than the Cell C one. Even if you don’t use the extra 2GB of data, the pricing is exactly the same and you get rollover of unused data from Vodacom but not from Cell C. Most people will use the extra data though, especially for those pesky Windows updates 2AM in the morning.

And it’s not about humour, I believe, but facts.

Vodacom’s network is faster than Cell C according to Ookla and they got substantially better coverage than Ceil C, however Lars tries to state otherwise in these ads.

One cannot blame Vodacom for going to the ASA when Cell C openly lies about things like speed and coverage. Read the newspaper ad above and you’ll see Cell C claims to be faster and have better coverage. Both claims are false.

Remember, the Cell C promotion is also just that, a promotion. Lars indicated numerous times they’ll stop it at some point but refuse to say when, creating the impression it’s their normal pricing. Which it’s not. Their normal pricing is the same as Vodacom or MTN.

At least Vodacom is honest in stating clearly it’s a promotion with a limited time span. Not misleading the market like Cell C.
Gman

I have sims for all 3, my voda is in my best phone, but Cell-C is just putting the truth out there thats all, Vodacom has the best customer service true, but there speeds are bad, even MTN is faster… so I agree that they need to upgrade asap because i’m soon dropping them…
Joel Job

@David.

You can get your CellC speedstick from Makro and many other related outlets – why bother with Cresta. If you are stupid enough to sign a new 24month contract for the 3 month 2GB special from VodaCom you are too dumb to operate a PC.
Ian

Aaaaag, grow up Vodacom.
Who Cares?

I gave up on Vodacom and their poor customer service last year. At least at Cell C I feel loved.

I think this kind of advertising is good for business on both sides.
david

@Lars. I have resent the email.

@Joel. The deal is valid for 12 Months just like with Cell C. Now before you call someone dumb again, i suggest you read more about the subject matter.
kris

@ Trick Starr
Cell C did use Vodacom’s towers but it didn’t come for free. BTW so is 8ta using MTN’s towers. Its very common to co-locate in the mobile area but it costs money.
http://www.iiit.co.za iCubed Technologies

Cell C FTW. Go Lars. Go Cell C! We’re loving this, and we support you all the way! Vodacom is just being a spoilt-brat cry-baby run-to-mummy snot-kop when the other children in the play ground actually learn to kick back.

They’ve had it so good for so long, that they don’t know how to compete anymore. Their cartel-type agreement with MTN to keep mobile Telecoms & Broadband prices artificially high for all these years has caused a great disservice to South Africa, and set the entire country back many years. With cheaper telecoms, business flourishes, economies grow, and the poor benefit the most.

But the Vodacom and MTN cartel sought to keep South Africa back, so that they could continue profiteering for as long as possible.

Vodacom – you can change your branding from blue/green to red but we will NEVER forget your true colours, and how raped us consumers for all these years.
BritinSA

Vodacom may claim what they like about speed but the truth (for me) is that Cell C in my area is running 4x faster than Vodacom (whose tower is closer by 100m):

http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/106309186.png

Whilst I’m happy that Vodacom is offering matching prices, it needs to improve it network speeds. 1-2mbs is no longer acceptable even at 5c per Mb!
Celia

How disappointing that Vodacom should respond so childishly. Can’t they admit that the Cell C ad is clever. They should have responded in kind — creatively. But perhaps their ad agency doesn’t have the talent for that? No point in having a better service and a weak agency. And yes, I am a Vodacom customer.
http://Bizcomm Zee

Clever ads, clever copy, but its all about the service delivery from a network and their team for the end user. All this fuss… but its definetly got the public talking.
I agree also with the Neotel and Telkom getting into better competition.

We the public demand cheaper call/data rates, we demand the after service you promised when you were insisting we join your network (be it a land line or a cell service provider).
hahahaha

Vodacom build a bridge and get over it.
has any of these Vodacom cry babies seen PEPSI vs Coke ads in the US. Brilliant!
Favourite one is with this little girl that takes her money and puts it into a coke vending machine to get two cans of coke, but the only reason she is doing it is because she wants to use it to stand ontop of to get to the PEPSI vending machine.. Those vodacom babies would probably have heart attacks if that was done to their product… Vodacom grow a pair and make your own comercials. Jees the years of been protected by Gov has really made you weak
Lutendo

@John the vodacom deal of selling 4GB of data for R149 per month and have to wait for 12H00 midnight to use another 2GB sucks, its like waiting for a porn movie to start playing while kids are sleeping
Lutendo

Funny ! Vodacom was selling a galaxy Tab for R399 on a 36 months contract and Cell C is R365 for 24 Months , the following week Vodacom was now selling the same product for R369 for 36 months still, and now, who is being taken for a ride… let the best man have a bigger slice of a cake,
Cyberbabe

Come on… did Vodacom really think that Cell C wasn’t going to react? First rule in marketing if you are the leading brand in an industry – if your competitor (especially if they are so small!) does something to taunt you, ignore, ignore, ignore. If you respond, they get more attention and you bring your brand down to their level!!
Cry_Me_A_River

@John 11 April 2011 at 2:55 pm…

Hello Jannie! Spinning again I see!
Everxian

R100M pay-off money from Vodafone for cell-c to sell out and change its color. Couldn’t afford that ferrari before but now with British Money, yeah. Who’s the joke now.
P.S. For the 6 months I been using your 3G, its been ****.
Kay

I’m sorry but am I the only one flabbergasted by this whole situation? Cell C dissing Vodacom because they changing their COLOUR? This is rich coming from a company that recently changed their WHOLE LOOK while at the same time making all kinds of promises to the world. Vodacom has been saying ‘it’s going red’ – so what. They rebranding to fit the parent company Vodafone. Reason. They are not trying make themselves look better like some snot-nose operator we all know.
And it’s right for Vodacom to take legal action rather than throw mud right back them. Competitive advertising is not allowed in this country. Yea it’s fun to watch but it’s still not allowed. They pushing their luck if you ask me.
And FYI, I moved from Vodacom to Cell C once and then I moved right back. For me Vodacom is way better!

Vodacom sees red over Cell C taunts

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