Cell C recently made tsunami sized social media waves with their Trevor Noah social media campaign. The jist of which is that Trevor Noah, the South African comedian, wrote to his Twitter fans that Cell C was the worst network ever and that they needed to change their attitude or lose him as a client forever! Cell C CEO (the real CEO, Lars Reichelt) then placed a HUGE full page advert in the Sunday Times written directly to Trevor Noah asking for an open conversation as to how they can solve his problem.
Now from the outset, this seems like case study territory. This, wow, the CEO (the real one) of Cell C took the time to realise the power that is Trevor N……. I mean social media and respond to it, repairing the relationship and making Cell C a real social media powerhouse!
This was then followed by Trevor, seemingly, agreeing to be the face of Cell C’s social media campaign and within days (nay hours) you could not turn on the tv or the radio or drive down the street without seeing Trevor’s smiling mug as their new CEO (customer Experience Officer). This was a onslaught of offline media driving hard at online, pushing people to go online and connect, to respond and to get involved in making Cell C the best cellular provider in the country.
Unfortunately the honesty and openness that is social media has been corrupt. Cell C staged the entire thing. Trevor was approached before the tweet went out! The domains were registered, the campaign planned, the logo changed (nice move that) and the (Im sure lucrative) deal with Trevor was signed and sealed.
Is this what social media has become..?
A place where large brands who have capital (read : cash) clout can monopolise the landsccape once more and write the story before we get to say if it is a story that we want to even read or not?! Are our delicate sensibilities yet again going to be plundered by large corporates?! (I’ll stop with the rhetorical questions now).
I personally believe that this is not the future of social media. This is an example of a large corporate who has based their social campaign on an offline strategy. Some say it is genius, others say it is ludicrous. Whatever your take on it, you have to admit it worked! Whether it will have legs to continue being so prolific in the media and with consumers is another story which we will have to wait to find out.
Jonathan is the Online Marketing Manager at Talooma and spends his days working on client strategies; campaigns and heading up the online marketing division. Jonathan often shares his thoughts on the online marketing industry and new exciting trends.
TwitterTags: Cell C, Credibility Gap, social media, social networking
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Hi Jono,
Great article.
I think, that this approach to using Social Media to create a ‘false’ hype, has worked very well for the Cell C brand. Whether or not people were aware of the initial ‘bad press’ that Cell C got, the truth is, they have driven very hard at repositioning themselves through a new branding strategy, while at the same time, knocking the entire South African Cellular market and opening themselves up to receiving all industry criticism and being the proverbial industry ear.
I agree that this probably wasn’t a true Social Media Campaign, but it is marketing initiatives like this, that definitely force the general public (those socially aware and not), to sit up, take note and listen.
Well done Cell C.
I have to agree….. it worked! Anything that has created this much buzz definitely achieved their objective which was, no doubt, publicity.
[...] a recent post I made on Ponder (an online marketing blog); I went in to great detail about how Cell C and Trevor Noah have [...]
Love it. Good approach
Hi Jonathan.
Good article, it really is sad that the whole thing was staged… still even so it is a good way to start and run a campaign. The general public unaware of what happens/happened behind the scenes.
I admit when I read the first advert I was quite impressed, but this faded when I couldn’t find the video on Trevor’s Facebook page or on his YouTube page.
When I saw three full page ads the following week I knew something was up, and I was also annoyed by the (c)TM logo, which is just ridiculous.
My annoyance turned to anger when I realized the whole thing was a setup, and my anger turned to outright indignation when it was pointed out that their “4Gs” network isn’t 4G at all. Now when I see Trevor’s promises to “keep an eye on Cell C” I just think the whole thing is dishonest and bogus. And when I hear Trevor’s voice on the voice mail messages I cringe.
Trevor may know how to imitate Julius Malema, but he knows squat about cell phones. And Cell C’s ad agency knows squat about the basics of social media: keep it honest. That’s why “United Breaks Guitars” worked. It was honest, funny and we could relate to it.
Is it really so difficult for ad agencies to NOT LIE in their ads? Are all advertising executives compulsive liars, like estate agents and car salesmen? It’s a sad reflection on our society that we tolerate such blatant dishonesty.
Very intelligent move I think.
Great article by the way.
I think it was brilliant. Even blogged about it