OXFORD, United Kingdom-The rebranding that is being implemented by some of the large European cell-phone operators as they push toward a worldwide identity seems to be failing, according to advertising executives. Two operators, T-Mobile and MmO2, have attracted the most criticism as they attempt to make brand changes within their sprawling empires.
T-Mobile is reported to be taking its U.K. property, One 2 One, and turning a local brand with a poor network but a friendly personality into a large corporate-facing, international brand. John Tylee of the advertising magazine Campaign said he is unimpressed by T-Mobile’s efforts to date.
“It’s an odd campaign. The strapline is ‘Get More.’ Get more what?” Tylee asked. “It’s as if the brand is desperately looking for some USP, but it has nothing very much new to say. The campaign is not communicating any added value of relevance to the U.K. audience. It’s talking about a name change and nothing else. The current campaign looks as if it’s appealing to the lowest common denominator.”
Meanwhile, MmO2, which is attempting to pull all its European cell-phone businesses under a single brand, has been accused by Ravi Chandiramani of New Media Age of failing to engage consumers as to what the benefits of using the network are.
“It’s been a completely vacuous campaign. The overarching ‘bubbles’ imagery has usurped any kind of attempt to tell people why they should use MmO2. All it has done is tell us that the name exists, and then not at all clearly. MmO2 needs to make the message a lot more sophisticated,” he said.
