Cell C goes to Ogilvy

Johannesburg - Cell C has awarded its R200m advertising account to Ogilvy Johannesburg, climaxing three weeks of intensive activity and a five-agency pitch. The other contender in a final shortlist of two was DDB South Africa, which recently won a big slice of the First National Bank account.

The original pitch list also included Net#work BBDO, the incumbent of eight years which withdrew from the process, MorrisJones and Grey South Africa.

Ogilvy is South Africa's biggest agency group, while DDB is about a tenth of its size.

The media planning and buying account was awarded last week to Carat (formerly Media Coordination or MEC), after being with The MediaShop for a number of years. Others in the running were MediaCompete, Initiative Media and Starcom.

The process has been overseen by new Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt, the German-born former head of Orascom Telecom's Bangladesh unit, who is clearly taking a hands-on attitude towards the company?s marketing.

The appointment made this one of the biggest account moves of the year. Cell C ranked 15th among South African advertisers last year, according to the Nielsen Company, but its conventional media adspend was only about half that of cellphone market leaders MTN (R470m) and Vodacom (R445m).

It has lost money heavily in a fight from a severely disadvantaged position, but new opportunity may emerge with the enforced cuts in cross-network calls (interconnect fees). High interconnect fees tend to put smaller operators at a disadvantage.

Other contenders are waiting in the wings, including, apparently, British No 3 cellphone network Orange. Orange has started enforcing its rights to its name in South Africa, telling companies with the word orange in their name to stop using it.

- Fin24