Editor’s Note: Viewpoint mentioned in this article are views of the author. ProPakistani.com may not agree with them at all
Now days when every operator is fighting hard to retain its position, the war on advertising front has gone to new intensities. As you have read on propakistani that our artificial growth and so called figures of telecom boom are down to earth now. After long and tiring efforts against the illegal SIMs, the issue has finally come to a successful note and PTA has given the 31st January last date to eliminate Pre active SIMs from markets from 31st January, 2009. PTA and mobile operators have decided to launch a campaign to collect all the pre active SIMs from the market and franchises at the end of this month.
According to PTA sources Telenor Pakistan has taken over the second spot in November 2008 and now again Ufone has taken its previous place with more sales of connection and less blockage of illegal SIMs. So, the race for 2nd place is very hard and still continues.
However, it was interesting to note that not only on the front of services both the companies are competing neck and neck but also on the from of advertising. If Telenor Pakistan has 5 ads on a channel at least 4 ads of Ufone are there to reply in the same manner. On the end Zong is challenging Mobilink through the TVCs. The talking point of the Zong TVC is “ very smart…..mery aziz…Zong kay customers pehlay din say 75 paisay mian bat ker rehay hain…aur yehi nahin…belkay kisi bhi network kay aik No per 50 pasiy main” this was the most impressive way to counter the challenge of any company. I think that creative director and writer of this concept must be appreciated.
In this race Warid seems too far away as the company now offers happy hours, so late mery aziz….were you sleeping till now. Other companies have offered now 3 to 5 continuous happy hours for just 5 Rupees per hour. Look Ufone, Telenor Pakistan and Zong are offering several happy hours. I don’t think that this was a wise planning from the Warid that they are just offering F5 for Rs. 500 hours a month. The marketing team and media consultant agency of the Warid needs some excitement and push up to move further ahead. This will be really big blow for the Abu Dhabi group if their telecom venture lacks behind from other companies even from Zong. Believe me people love Warid due to its back ground of UAE. Through this forum, I appeal to the Chairman Abu Dhabi Group and Sheikh Nehyan Mubark Al -Nehayan, His Excellence Education Minister of UAE to keep the company in full swing with other companies and don’t lose heart even if this is hard time for your group. We love you and your company.
I want to share news with you dear reader, Mobilink has solved the issue with an Urdu news paper and you will not find any news against the Orascom group or Mobilink any more. All the links with Israel and misdeeds of Naguib Swaris are now acceptable and fine. Now the company can even invest more in Pakistan. There is no risk of its links with the biggest enemy of Islamic world.
Ufone, which is unfortunately joking all the time with itself now starts teasing Telenor. I have many discussions with my friends and colleagues and they all like it. Faisal Qureshi has done a good performance while saying “connection chaaiey Ufone kaa”. On the other side Adeel Hashmi has performed well while saying “ tamam mobile dosray network ki poinch say duor rekhay”. This friendly fire was first introduced by Zong in its launch campaign and then Ufone adopted it in a different style.
If we look at this scene, Ufone has the edge of performance on Telenor Pakistan. Ufone team and creative ad company have a good effort.
In the friendly fire, Mobilink has its pride on the advertising front with its unique approach of just adopting its own innovative and creative ideas. There ads never tease any one and never copy any national or international thematic ad. This should be a strategy of any company who has the pride of being No.1 for so long time.
