ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

The launch of Windows has generated quite a bit of noise worldwide. It's said to have a lot of advantages and to be better than Vista. A friend has posted this Mac ad on Facebook. It's not only a good laugh but it's also quite thought-provoking. Marketers and companies are sometimes self-defeating and give broken promise. Has Mac given broken promises before ? It probably has.

WiFi everywhere, does it sounds like an interesting service ? It can connect up to 5 WiFi devices too. At the beginning, I was confused between this Pocket WiFi and the hotspot WiFi PCCW has been advertising about before. Have checked it out from the website . It seems the pocket Wifi thingy is like a wireless router that connects to the 3G or HSPA wireless network for sharing. This service is not too cheap. For unlimited usage, it costs you HK$328 a month with 24-month contract. I just wonder who will use this service and if you pay attention to the details, the highest connection speed is 7.2Mbps, to be shared with 5 devices. The actual speed also depends on the environment and network stability. So you can imagine the speed when it's really shared by 5 people.

The tone and manner of this ad is so Canon. At the beginning, I thought it was selling DC or photo printer again. Memories, happy faces, slices of life, all these imageries are associated with the use of digital photography. Yet it's selling the document/file retrieval of a new copier (I'm not too sure just by watching the TVC). I can't judge whether the message is clear as supposedly it targets business users for office use of this machine. The strange part is the ad is aired on TV where most of us wouldn't find it relevant.

PCCW Next Gen network - Beyond 3G ! I scratch my head when I try to listen to what the VO says. The delivery is so fast like 數白欖...1000M+ optical fiber backbone, HSPA technologies, HSPA plus cyber, PCCW Mobile, Netvigator Everywhere ... all these buzzwords occupy half of the TVC. There are benefit claims in the later part of the VO like powerful Internet experience, higher data transmission volumes, smooth and fast etc. The whole TVC just lacks any central idea of what it's trying to say. At the end, how does this so called Next Gen network benefit me as a consumer ? It's more like a self-pleasing ad that trumpets leadership in technologies.

Thanks to one of my friends, I finally got hold of all 18 TVCs of Hong Kong Broadband. You would just either like it or hate it but the campaign has managed to create a lot of talkabouts. It's just as controversial as the chairman of CTI, 王維基. Not going to analyse it as I think it's more for enjoyment.

Notebooks and Netbooks are hot and mobile broadband is the arena that PCCW and Smartone-Vodafone both want to have a share in. It's funny that Telcos are quite into competitive advertising. But this Smartone-Vodafone does have a point and strike right on the weakness of Netvigator Everywhere. Netvigator is not "everywhere" per se. At home, you use fixed line broadband. Out of home, you need a device to connect to either WiFi, HSDPA or 3G. I mentioned it's self-defeating in my post last year. Seems Smartone-Vodafone people have been reading my blog. LOL.

It's a great production. I bet it's a regional ad and only big brands like Nokia can afford to produce ads with size and production value. Web 2.0 is about sharing and community. I just wonder whether it will become popular on mobile phone. True that we can do many things with our mobile phone as on the net - MSN, blogging, Facebooking, YouTubing, you name it. Sometimes I get onto the net with my Nokia phone too. Yet I find the screen too small, the connection too slow and processing time too long for real net surfing. For real mobile Internet users, they may prefer laptop or Smartphone.

If you really want consumers to read your ad, don't manage it like this one. There are just too many colours and too many different kinds of fonts. It may be attention getting but I guess no reader would read the copies with such a dizzy execution. Clean and tidy is the key. We need a main visual that catches readers' eyes and interests them to read on.

This new TVC of 3 is not too creartive but we can still hear the message loud and clear. "Telecommunication has entered into the 3.0 generation." It sounds like something big in the saying but what is 3.0 generation ? It doesn't really tell except that the tag-on tells some clues. The tag-on talks about its 23 TV channels and new Samsung phones. Is that the so-called 3.0 generation all about ? 23 TV channels or new Samsung phones is a not big deal to us. Are there more exciting services coming with it ? If there are too many to explain in a 30-second TVC, it could have highlighted its website address for people to check out more. I have checked. It's a disappointment.

This new ad of HK Broadband is not funny at all. It's like a summary of the elements from the previous TVCs . The only new thing is this band singing 豈有此理. What's the name of the band ? Guess most readers can't tell. The band is called Blue Jeans and 豈有此理 is one of their hits from the 80's (seems that they are having a come back lately). It's rather weird to me that it uses an old band as the target audience is just too young to know them. I also wonder why it needs a new TVC . Basically the message is the same as the previous ones and they are more funny and creative. I'd rather repeat them and supposedly they are not too worn out.

In my previous post , I said I doubted why SmarTone would get into the stagnant fixed line phone market. Saw the above comparative ad that is trying to get head-on with PCCW. Smartone is a new entrant into the fixed line market and I can understand why it uses this ad trying to saying to consumers "I'm better than the leader". What has puzzled me is that why PCCW has reacted with a comparative ad below so similar to that of SmartTone. First, they look the same and are confusing consumers. Second, PCCW shouldn't have reacted like a small guy as it is the leader. Leaders advertise leadership rather than trivializing the message as what the challenger says. Finally, should it react with advertising in the first place ? Would PR be a better tool ? Like taking the initiatives to provide comparative information to the press and let them do the comparisons. Well, if you are really confident that your service is really better...

It seems Smartone and HK Broadband are joining force to steal some business from PCCW. HK Broadband is trying to take shares from the ISP and paid TV businesses of PCCW while Smartone is attacking its fixed line phone as well as digital jukebox businesses. In the past, there was only MOOV by PCCW and now that we have MusicXS by Smartone. With more players fueling the digital jukebox market, it won't be too long before it replaces CDs, particularly among the younger generation. The monthly fee is quite reasonable at HK$56 for unlimited PC downloads and HK$96 for unlimited PC+mobile phone downloads. Not a bad deal at all.

Some people comment that this TVC is horrible with the play of monster/ghostly images. I think it's quite cute. Cute and horrible, there is a fine line but it has definitely generated some talkabouts. Thanks once again to 王維基, we can see some interesting and different ads in the boring ad scene. It seems like everything HKBB is quite committed to head-on with PCCW. Last time I talked about the Netvigator HD decoder promotion saying that it's not attractive at a price of HK990. Now HKBB offers the same for free. I checked out the HKBB's offer on its website . I must say it's much more attractive than the offer of Netvigator as the lowest commitment is just HK$48 x 24 months with the IDD0030 300-minute/month plan. I'm not advertising for them but it's worth considering it.

O2 Xda Atom Life for free. Thought that it was a promotion ad from one of the telecos again. Surprise surprise, it's not. It's from an IT education centre called Feva Works. The offer is that if you take this Microsoft Mobile 6 course at HK$5,380, you will get an O2 Xda Atom Life for free (worth HK$5,280). Sounds like a good bargain, doesn't it ? What's the catch ? You can figure it out if you think about it the other way round. You are actually paying for phone and taking a a complimentary course about how to use the Mobile 6 platform in business applications. My fair guess is that the course costs Feva Works nothing to run as it must be taught by Microsoft personnel. Look, it's a good opportunities for Microsoft to educate and hence soft-sell its mobile system platform to IT people who may consider using it for their companies. That's a pretty smart line-up for win-win-win. Feva Works can make a profit, Microsoft can do communications to IT people and the IT p...

Just finished a positioning seminar for Macau Telecom yesterday. We said that positioning is all about the inter-linkages among the target segment, their need and the benefit we offer in simple terms. Positioning is an important driver before the other 4Ps, especially before we invest in marketing communications. If we take look at this TVC in the context of positioning, we can easily find that it is very much an empty talk. Wharf T&T is said to help businesses in their communication needs. But what communication needs ? How does it help ? With what ? Marketing communications should be used to communicate a positioning. Otherwise, it can just serves to uplift the awareness of the brand. It reminds us Wharf has telecommunication services for businesses. So what ?

While PCCW and HK Broadband are still fighting, Smartone has quietly launched a competitive print, also against PCCW. The ad is about its wireless broadband service. In the print ad, the (broken) modem on the left parodies with the Netvigator Everywhere modem that selects the best network among 3G, HSPDA and WiFi (look closer by clicking on the image). PCCW and HK Broadband are fighting in the fixed line broadband arena, talking about optical fibre coverages. In fact my fair guess is that wireless broadband should be the battlefield in the future. If any of the telcos is able to offer good wireless broadband coverage, at home and out-of-home, at a reasonable price, say HK$200-300, people may cut their fixed line broadband at home and go wireless. It will be like mobile phones replacing fixed line phones. As far as I know, many people are no long using fixed line phone service nowadays, they just use mobile phone at home. At HK$100 per month, you get more than 1,000 minutes ...

So looks like the fights goes on between HK Broadband and PCCW. My brother sent me this Flash comic (click onto the above image to see). I guess it is an eDM sent to internet users. It is bascially laughing at the credibility of PCCW's coverage of optical fibre. There are several things worth noting about this fight-back initiative. First it picked the right channel talking to internet users via eDM. Second there is no censorship on the net. Hence, it can push it to limit in term of compeitive message. You just can't show this on TV without getting banned. Finally it is very clever to use animation/comic to continue the campaign (I'm aware that it is using the same approach for print ads and outdoors). It is cheap and fast to produce. The felxibility would enable it to react to any competitive move of PCCW. Don't know whether it is by accident or something planned. If it is the latter, the agency and the marketers in HK Broadband must be really really smart. They shoul...

The TVCs of HK Broadband has really made a stir to the advertising scene. My post about the HK Broadband campaign have received quite a few comments. Guess generating talk-abouts is what 王維基 is good at. Thanks the readers who contributed this link of PCCW 1000M+ TVC. PCCW is fighting back. Interesting that it uses rats to make a mockery of HK Broadband. It doesn't look like a gentlemen act as the market leader. I think the TVC is not really striking the right chord. Basically the HK Broadband TVCs are talking about its high speed with optical fibres going into home. High speed is the claim and supposedly the benefit that people are looking for. The coverage of optical fibres is the support. So if PCCW is fighting back head-on, it should talk about speed, rather than its coverage of optical fibres. It has also invented a new brand name, PCCW 1000M+. I searched in its website and it is in fact a new service plan. Now we have choices of 3M, 6M or 1000M services depending on where yo...

Thanks for the contribution from an anonymous reader who sent me these links. Brilliant TVCs are rare these days. I've been seeing these TVCs for a while but didn't have time to locate them. These are the follow-on TVCs from the last one , still playing mockery of PCCW. Personally I like the Graham Bell version more. Making fun out of a dead person is usually a taboo and going into this route can be a possible turn-off. However, it manages to blend in some thoughtful executions into the TVC to ensure it is surreal and fun : the 粵語長片-like setting, the cute 牛頭馬臉 and the funny dialogue. As for the Ant version, it's not as creative as the Graham Bell version but it ls along the same concept with the last TVC . If we put both TVCs together, they are more like coming from the same series. The Graham Bell one is more creative but it's an odd one out. And I guess that's why they chose to shoot and air both at the same time. Good that they have the budget. But if you had jus...

This sounds like a self-defeating marketing idea. Netvigator Everywhere offers you a device that searches for the best wireless data service among 3G, HSPDA or WiFi. WiFi, as we know, is location specific. But were we promised that 3G is a high speed network service that allows us to make video calls and connect to an array of multimedia services anytime anywhere ? Apparently PCCW is admitting that its 3G is not covering the whole of HK or the speed is not consistent. A device, that will search for the best networking, as the key selling point is a marketing fallacy too. At the end consumers don't really care about what service they are connected to. They care about whether the speed is good and the price is right. The barrier to the wider use of wireless services is price, price, price ... hope someone will take a look at the price elasticity equation.