5c texts cost 3 a million


5 Sep 2006

3 Ireland has claimed to be spending €1m on its latest ad campaign that promotes its recently launched 5c text, picture and video messaging offer.

The latest entrant to the Irish mobile market, which began offering a prepaid service to consumers earlier this year, said that it was allocating half of a current €2m marketing spend to the campaign.

The cross-media campaign comprises television ads running on a combination of terrestrial and digital channels: RTE, TV3, TG4, Sky, E4, MTV, Setanta, Paramount and Channel 6. It also covers radio and press advertising, along with outdoor advertising and public relations.

The TV ads depict a large lecture hall where a communicating couple spark off a flurry of text messages between the students, with a professor facing the blackboard oblivious to it all. The spots were produced by Traktor and filmed on location in Hawaii while the media buying was undertaken by Mindshare.

The 5c offer applies to all new and existing prepay, or ‘3Pay’, customers who join before 31 January 2007 and it will apply for as long as they stay connected to the 3Pay tariff. These customers are automatically entitled to use the service and don’t need to sign up or register for it separately.

3 also encouraged mobile phone users to check the telecoms regulator’s website www.callcosts.ie to compare prices. When the company first launched its 5c offer last month it accused rivals of “exploiting” consumers with their mobile charges.

By Gordon Smith

Pictured — an excerpt from 3’s TV advertisement