Telstra wheels out celebrities to tout Next G

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 01 July 2007 15:58

IT Industry - Deals

Telstra is spending megabucks to push its Next G cellular service, signing up a bevy of global celebrities comprising Dustin Hoffman, Sir Bob Geldof, John McEnroe and local star, Rachael Carpani.

The celebrities will feature in a campaign developed by George Patterson Y&R and comprising 30 second and 15 second television commercials, cinema, outdoor, print and online advertising to be rolled out over the next 12 months. According to Telstra the campaign will "contrast the capability of Telstra's Next G network against the short-comings of other mobile networks - both international and in Australia."

The campaign will also "reinforce the benefits the Next G network can provide to customers yet to upgrade from Telstra's CDMA network." Telstra says this "will be switched off at the end of January next year." However this switch-off is subject to Government approval and is conditional on Next G coverage being shown to match that of CDMA by an ACMA audit which is yet to be conducted.