It’s always entertaining when companies cleverly use adverts to diss & make fun of each other, the ads by ZOL and TelOne in the past weeks (and today) were a welcome refreshment from daily Zim doom and gloom.
ZOL started it with these billboards in the past week or so:
And yesterday, TelOne hit back with this:
We have our thoughts about which is cleverer but we’d love to hear what you think. Let us know in the comments? Which company killed it?
Update:
A day later, ZOL, clearly referencing TelOne ad, ran with this:
We ofcourse agreed with ZOL that the TelOne ad was only effective in advertising ZOL
yeah that does stand out. In Mentioning ZOL, TelOne advertised their competition https://t.co/zqF4r8dG05
— Techzim (@Techzim) May 18, 2016
But ZOL just moved from clever thinking to just wasting advertising money and space on petty fighting. Their latest ad is not focused on how the ZOL experience is better, it’s just a jab at how ineffective TelOne’s ad was, which ironically takes away their ad’s effectiveness. Could have been creative with this without focusing on the obvious petty stuff.
Share
Home
26 comments
Me thinks we should let them entertain us some more before we say who killed it. Kudos for the witty adverts though.
Rubbis we want reliable and affordable ads not wasstign money on por and hate adds.
hahaha, you’re an unhappy customer clearly! Who did you wrong?
Billboard vs Press says it all.The other is just a reaction.Reactions are never witty.Unenge watofungirwa kudhara.Kudos to ZOL’s agency which I think in this case is Think Tank Advertising. Then vamwe avo,Jericho, chop chop next time lol. ZOL1-0 Telone . PS : Leicester won the league this way.
Zol 1
telone 0
coz reacted without proper plan
I’m sure they are cooking up a well thot out comeback though coz there’s enough to make fun of in the other camp
ZOL billboard design is ugly and Telone just reacted to ugliness w’out thinking
zol -1 telone -1
Zvebasa rei izvozvo… Zvounza mari munyika here.. Nonesense
ZOL killed it.
Telone ad used too much of ZOLs colours, for moment ther i thot it was a ZOL ad.
NO, TelOne’s colors are blue.. and ZOL uses Orange. SO if you are to count, only three bold leters are in ZOL colors and they are saying ZOL. and the ‘they’ referring to ZOL
But orange is more brighter than blue, actually those 3 letters were the first things that l noticed before l could even make sense of the whole advert
the match is over, Zol yahwina.This one is a technical knockout. Unless telone can come up with a witty advert that counters the have conceede defeat. Last time that statement was used
yakavhara mutambo and we know who won.
After all this people will vote with their pockets! What matters at the end of day is who have the best reliable internet and customer service.
Kudos to TelOne…nice response. for sure they can’t stop talking about TelOne broadband
TelOne 3- Zol 1
And it’s ZOL that started this whole thing now they’ve gone Ray Charles to that fact. LOL let’s see how it unfolds.
When internet providers react like they have become new models of Zim Dancehall beef, Stunner versus Mudiwa, Jaggers versus Makro, East Coast versus West Coast then know that we need to teach more marketing strategy rather than comical acts bent on increasing the cost of internet through balooning advertising costs. My take – each operator must focus on what VALUE they can give their customers. Adverts of this nature rarely cause customers to move. Sell benefits of your product as if noone else is competing with you. Zvihuta versus Nandos jibe is comedy – Leave that to PO Box and others. Compete on SERVICE, PRICE, QUALITY etc not on who has put on a better fight.
Well said. It’s cute but will it get me to put my money there. In the case of one of these ISP’s their customer service is awful. They would be better placed applying resources there. That would sway me more than witticisms.
Its good to have a little bit of jousting between competitors. As long as it does not become obnoxious, no problem. They both deserve to get bragging rights. Its entertaining. As for the service quality they are not that much different from each other and both their pricing regimes are atrocious compared to their colleagues down south. Both their advertising agencies deserve our kudos.
Who has won – NO ONE has moved my heart to like their services. Which one is funnier – BOTH are creative ideas. We give it to both companies.
Reminds me of Net*One & Econet back in the days. “While the others are busy putting up billboards…..”
Hillarious, but who won at the end of the day? The billboard erector was given it’s space and ran with the subscribers.
I find this ad fight more entertaining and amusing than speed Telone is giving me these days. Just this other day my download speed was 29kbps!! And in terms of who is the most creative, my score 0-0. They are just playing with words while their ad agency and papers cash in on the feud 😀
ZOL are the winners. TELONE have essentially inadvertently advertised for ZOL. There is nothing in their advert that is against ZOL simply free viewing?
TelOne shouldn’t have used ZOL corporate colors on their advert. The ad should read something like, “TELONE- Keeping Everyone connected, That’s why they keep talking about us” or ” Providing affordable and reliable internet services”
@alstair_rob where is umax you should be fligjting some response
1. your giraffe looking over the durawall over zol and telne and writes Zvinonesta kutanga vakuru varipamusoro
2. the zol cheetah running in circles fast and the telone one tied to the strart line
3. zol and telone minikins fighting and you writing in better language mabharanz anonetsa
I’m actually at a zol spot right now and I think telone made the right call to indirectly and un intentionally admit that zol is awesome lol
The billboard was effective,it sent a clear message across.Probably addressed some.business objectives too, and came with some new converts.They thought about it properly too and after that point anything that TelOne does gives more mileage to ZOL nomatter what.TelOne unknowingly fell into a trap,the more they try to fight back the more they lose.Make that Quicksand. ZOL’s value proposition is legit,they are telling you to switch from.ADSL to their Fibronix network and they were creative about it.They used creativity to make people notice what they are offering and it worked.In trying to hit back TelOne did nothing for their ADSL but just took a dig at ZOL,an egotistic move. That there is the difference between Parastatals and Private Sector.PR vs Profitability. The other thing is you can tell who TelOne’s ad agency is.The same guys who came up with the distasteful Cecil Ad which they had to pull off their Facebook page,but the internet never forgets.I hope this helps explain why TelOne missed the target by that much,no offence. Same scenario of two brands,Profit vs Egos .Take a look at this article http://www.tindani.com/2015/08/jericho-advertising-and-barkers-ogilvy-in-a-rush-to-gain-mileage-from-cecil-the-lion/