Will this ad fix Telstra’s network?

WITH Telstruggle taking the mantle from Vodafail as Australia’s most unreliable telco, it’s hoping this new ad will change customers’ minds.

WITH Telstruggle taking the mantle from Vodafail as Australia’s most unreliable telco, will a new advertising campaign change customers’ minds?

That’s the idea, with Telstra this weekend launching its first major brand shake-up in five years in a bid to overhaul its tarnished image.

Launched on Sunday evening, “Telstra 3.0” aims to evolve the company’s position from a “telco to a techno — to be a world-class technology company empowering people to connect”.

The ad, which features Australian slam poet Philip Wilcox narrating over music from Sydney artists Flight Facilities, kicks off with sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke’s famous quote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.

“It shows how technology can solve common problems, helping people to thrive as a result,” Telstra marketing boss Joe Pollard wrote in a blog on the company’s website.

“It presents the wonder and magic of technology and shows how it can bring joy to our customers in a more human, innovative and trusted manner.

“We have captured this emotion in a range of ways, from showing a granddaughter being read a story book by video to a grandmother experiencing virtual reality for the first time.

“[Our] customers want us to build upon the strength of our network and empower them to turn their ambitions, aspirations and dreams into reality. They look to us as a company to be their technology partner and we take this seriously.”

The commercial highlights Telstra technologies including LANES, an emergency communications channel for use in disasters, Testra’s eHealth services like Readycare, and its Smart Home offering.

“Outside of the home we are embedding our smart technology into sporting stadiums to create better ways to experience sports for fans in the stands,” Ms Pollard wrote.

“Providing better ways for Australians to live also means providing better ways for them to work. Our enterprise solutions connect businesses from the Pilbara down to Sydney’s CBD, while our subsea cable network in Asia carries about a third of all traffic in the region.

“The benefits of technology are infinite and Telstra is proud to play our role in empowering people to thrive in a connected world.”

Market expert Barry Urquhart from Marketing Focus said the campaign was Telstra taking a “quantum leap” away from its traditional messaging around hardware, channels and systems.

“This addresses the very fundamental circumstances around every one of those outages over the last six months — the seven that they’ve admitted to,” he said.

“What they’re saying is, ‘This is about value-add. [The outages] are the backdrop, think of the hardware and channels as the context in which we provide the content.’”

Mr Urquhart said by changing the conversation, Telstra was attempting to avoid “apples to apples” comparisons with the likes of Vodafone, iiNet or TPG.

“I think that is a very astute marketing strategy,” he said. “To a large extent it’s addressing the reality that their future competitors are the likes of Google and Microsoft.”

The marketing push comes after Telstra announced it was cutting more than 300 customer service jobs as it continues to outsource call centre work to the Philippines.

Telstra has struggled with repeated and often lengthy outages over the past year, infuriating customers and leading CEO Andy Penn to announce a $250 million investment in shoring up the network.

On Friday, the Australian Olympic Committee launched legal action against Telstra for running an “I Go to Rio” marketing campaign despite having severed sponsorship ties with the AOC last year.

Will the new ad change your mind about Telstra?

Originally published as Will this ad fix Telstra’s network?