“Mobilink has tried to communicate an image of modernity and newness over the years,” says Rabia Garib, editor-in-chief of Netexpress Online, one of Pakistan’s leading IT/Telecom Webzines. “The company was the first to experiment with a female model as a brand ambassador on its ATL campaign, thus initiating the Jazz Girl concept, which became something of a trend for the other brands to follow,” recalls Rabia.

Whereas Mobilink and Telenor have looked to create postpaid brands, the other companies have concentrated more on the prepaid segment. Ufone’s PrePay campaign, with funky colors and a catchy jingle, was brilliant and ensured the soaring popularity of the brand among the youth and the teenage market. Unfortunately, Ufone could not effectively create sub-brands. The cardinal mistake: blandly naming its postpaid connection PostPay and its prepaid connection PrePay. Still, PrePay remains one of the more popular prepaid connections, if only because of the low rates.

Mobilink’s Jazz and Telenor’s Djuice and Talkshawk have been far more successful in creating a personality for their prepaid service packages. Jazz has continued the love affair of Mobilink with brand ambassadors, the latest being the star cricketer Wasim Akram, while Djuice relied on a creative and at times even gothic campaign. Talkshawk, on the other hand, took a page out of Mobilink’s book by using model-turned-singer Ali Zafar and the popular model/actress Sonya Jehan in its campaign.

“The competition in the industry and the massive budgets that the brands can call upon have led to an immense clutter of noise in the media,” says Rabia.

The result has been an increase in random noise advertising, as brands launch campaigns with elaborate song and dance TV ads that have nothing to do with the brand's personality, or emotional and functional attributes. “Telecom brands have really lost their way in terms of advertising ideas in recent years,” says Hamid Hussain, group account director with Manhattan International. “All they are doing is just screaming and shouting, and you can’t really tell one brand apart from another.” Jazz has been the biggest culprit. “With Jazz it’s all about having a show and tell tableau, followed by its name at the end,” says Rabia. “Do it twice a year with new models, new locales and a new song, bombard the media with it, and voila! Another Jazz campaign unfolds."

Zong, formerly known as Paktel but re-launched this year under China Mobile, took a different approach. Zong stepped into the fray with an expansive launch TV ad and followed it up with a campaign that took on the other telecom brands' marketing strategies. “The print ad for Zong was particularly creative,” says Rabia. “It was a wall with graffiti slogans on it, mimicking and ridiculing tag lines from rival brands; the indication being for the consumers to be able to express themselves in whichever way they choose,” she adds.

With so much potential still in the Pakistan telecom industry, it will be difficult for telecom brands to refrain from taking the easy way and simply screaming their way into consumers’ consciousness rather than building timeless and unforgettable brands.

“It’s a temptation to go for short term gains rather than long term benefits,” agrees Hamid. The fact remains that until the consumer can take home something from the personality or the lifestyle of the service, he/she will not remain a loyal user and defender of the brand. “I feel it’s a bit about evolution,” says Rabia. “The media industry in Pakistan is growing as well, and brands are just clamoring to have the most noise out there,” she adds.    

[16-Jun-2008]