Why Etisalat Cliqlite Should Have Used MTN’s First Step Baby as Ambassador

We may not like to admit this but eighty percent of what we do in marketing (communications) is pollution; you know, that moment when you look at a brand’s recent activity and you ask yourself: what in the world were they thinking? But every so often, a brand comes up with an idea in a way that reminds us that, at its best, our job is clairvoyance…meeting even yet to be manifest consumers needs.  If this writer doesn’t have Alzheimer yet, Professor Phillip Kotler, has a two word term for it, I can’t remember, anyway, who cares, as they say “idea is needed” isn’t it?

 

Just when one was preparing to write on the bravery and potential goldmine of Etisalat, a proudly Nigerian telecoms brand throwing its equity behind the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book turned film-“Half of a yellow sun”, an emotional story as divisive as unifying as that of the Nigerian civil war, the word is that the project is yet to be approved for general viewing by the film’s board (as at the time of writing that is).

 

Gbam! Out of the blue comes Cliqlite from etisalat, an edu-centric telecoms product made for teenagers between ages 8 to 15. The best ideas, they say, are the ones on the nose. Perhaps, it’s the reason Jazz enthusiasts admonish that performers must have big ears (hope they were not referring to mine) to listen to trending ideas. Any observer of technology in Nigeria would have noticed the rise in educational based apps target. A brand finally puts a ring on it and it is easy to wave this off as just one of those other new products in town. In a market of 170 million people, where the median age, according to Professor Biodun Jeyifo, is 19, this product is a master stroke. Damn it! The handwriting on the wall is all too clear: this is a product that recruits teenagers into the etisalat network, whose desired perception is to be the eternally youthful.

 

Here, the case we have is that of an awesome product driven by a not to bad advertising campaign. If etisalat had wanted to play like a leader, they should have made that girl in that classic MTN TV commercial; whose first step was inspired by the ring of the phone, the brand ambassador for etisalat’s Cliqlite. Remember remember! That MTN first step TV advert ran in the year 2006/7, which means the age of the baby falls into the bracket of Cliqlite. Now, that’s not porting, that’s growing up. You can imagine a spoof of that MTN’s phone-rings-in-a-way–that-inspires-baby-to –take-first- step-ad, with the girl using self deprecating humor to drive home the message: Sorry folks, MTN was my parent’s network but  Cliqlite is the network of the generation now.

 

As it is, Cliqlite is fine but one of the challenges is the share of pocket in order to keep the phone line active within the mandatory 90 days. In order to deepen engagement with its targets, it won’t be a bad idea if etisalat Cliqlite borrows from the play book of the New York City Department of Education (NYCDE), which in 2006, in partnership with Verizon wireless, came up with the Million campaign. At that time, the challenge was that kids were not doing well in school as they ought to, especially in Mathematics and sciences. They connected with kids the way they connect with each other: mobile phones! The idea was to tie class performance to phone based incentives. That is, the more you do well in class, the more freebies (airtime and data) you earn. If etisalat adds this to Cliqlite, it seals the deal. Hellooo, is any ‘buddy’ home?

 

Lest we forget,  it is worthy of note that the competitions in the category can play the spoiler game by cloning the Cliqlite package and offering same services with better rates to the same teenage age bracket. Beyond this, MTN and Glo as well as Airtel can take advantage of this teenage package and use its very core strength against it: parental control.  It is trite that young adults rebel against their parents during adolescence. They hate what their parent like: it is the reason they hate Facebook. So, any of the networks can create 18PLUS, a phone package for young people aged 18 and above. Promising real freedom, they can de-position etisalat’s Cliqlite as the symbol of an era of being treated like a kid. Activated on campuses where freshman are hungry for adventure, 18PLUS can be a 4 year phone lease package that expires upon graduation loaded with unbelievable crazy offerings.

 

Guess what, the market is still very open and that can lead to more meaningful market segmentation that will inspire awesome product offerings that will deliver the ROI.

 

Dear reader, permission to rest my pen.