M1 rolls out first Y&R ads

SINGAPORE - Singaporean mobile operator M1 is celebrating 11 years in the telecommunications industry by rewarding its long-term customers with greater discounts and smaller bills.

A print campaign for the telco is the first by Y&R Singapore since awarding the WPP agency its creative business in February. It will be sustained through the year in The Straits Times – the Lion City’s main broadsheet

Targeted at the mass market, promotions include free calls to three other M1 subscribers, unlimited overseas calls at flat-rate prices, per-second billings, and savings on subscriptions to two or more mobile lines.

“Issues of rising costs have been making the headlines recently. We hope news of the bonus discounts offered by our Multi Line Saver will bring some cheer to our customers,” said P. Subramaniam, M1’s chief marketing officer.

“We constantly review our service offerings to meet our customer’s needs as well as deliver better value, and we’ll be ramping up our marketing efforts this year to roll out new and exciting services that will enhance our customers’ mobile lifestyles.”

Mark Fong, creative director of Y&R Singapore, explained the creative strategy behind the campaign: “Capitalising on M1’s ‘Brighter’ tagline, the campaign brings the promise of illumination to life by highlighting the latest benefit for consumers through a distinctively stylish look that uses graphics created with light trails from the  display of mobile phones.”

Competition among the three telcos (SingTel, M1 and StarHub) is set to increase toward mid-2008, as full mobile phone number portability will be implemented, giving mobile subscribers the option to switch telcos without losing their phone numbers.