“Given the barrier created by the length of contract, our objective was to create ‘brand likeability’ for Hutch Post-Paid to make signing a one-year contract appealing to our audience,” said Vichanan Dechnarapan, communications manager, Ogilvy.
The TV spot, ‘Registration’, features a couple that become attracted to each other when they shop for the same mobile phone. As they fiddle with the phone’s features, they begin flirting with each other - much to the bemusement of the Hutch sales rep attending to them. The sales rep then enquires if they’re ready to register for the phone contract, but the love-struck couple mistake his intentions to mean that of marriage. They reject his offer insisting that they had just met one another. Realising their folly, they opt for the mobile phone instead.
Upon leaving the shop, the couple notice one another’s new phone numbers on their contracts lists, a ploy from the sales rep to hook them up. The tag then reads, ‘Good things always come when being with Hutch.’
“We found romance was the common insight for our target consumer. The double meaning of the word ‘registration’ was also to our advantage - because in Thai, the word also means ‘getting married’,” said Vichanan. “The idea has worked really well and ‘Registration’ is now the talk of the town and on community web boards.”
The campaign will run throughout February and is supported by print, outdoor and viral online.
Hutch is a joint-venture between CAT Telecom and Hutchison Telecommunications from Hong Kong. It runs the CDMA network in the country and is popular for its low-price phone packages.
The operator has two per cent share, or 800,000 of the country’s 48 million subscribers. Advanced Info Service is the market leader with 46 per cent of the market and 23 million subscribers.
Thailand’s US$5.3 billion mobile industry grew 18 per cent in 2007 as new subscribers hit the 12 million mark.
