While the blackout of 2003 may do little to convince the holdouts to go wireless, there’s no doubt the mobile phone category will continue to make significant gains. According to the Ottawa-based Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), there are currently over 12 million wireless subscribers in Canada, with about one million signing up annually since 2000. By the end of next year, the CWTA predicts that more than half of all Canadians will be wireless subscribers. As a result there is a battle among the wireless-carrier marketers to maintain existing subscribers and attract new ones. Most of the players have revamped campaigns to better resonate with their youthful targets, while messages across the board range from touting price to phone capabilities to the coolness of the handset itself.

The wireless leader in Canada is the Bell Wireless Alliance, which includes the Bell Mobility and Solo brands, with a total of 4.5 million subscribers. The Bell Solo brand has been running a revamped advertising campaign, created by Vancouver agency Rethink, since June. ‘[The young people we’re targeting] digest a lot of advertising,’ says John Hillis, director of youth marketing for Bell Mobility, in explaining the new strategy. ‘We knew we needed to differentiate ourselves from the crowd.’

The previous Solo advertising campaign depicted youth in various scenes at parties and cottage get-togethers, and Hillis says that there was some customer concern that the youth lifestyle was not being adequately represented. To break through the noise of the crowded wireless category, the brand enlisted Rethink to develop a campaign that would resonate with its tech-savvy 18- to 24-year-old consumer group. ‘[Bell] wanted something which connected the brand strongly to their phones,’ says Rethink’s co-CD Ian Grais. ‘Youth are extremely comfortable with wireless technology, so we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if we created the ads with the phones?”

The resulting TV, print and outdoor ads use pixellated characters that look like they walked out of 1980s retro videogames. The creative shows the ‘world within your phone,’ says Hillis, by focusing on different capabilities such as games, messaging and ringtones.

Microcell Solutions, which owns the Fido brand, sits in fourth place among wireless carriers, with 1.1 million subscribers. In an effort to change that, the Montreal-based company also launched a new TV campaign in June that strays from its usual dog-centred efforts and focuses on ‘community and fun,’ according to Ezana Raswork, director of consumer marketing for Fido.

Created by long-time Montreal Bos, the spots show an authoritative, yet humorous figure who presents his version of an ideal world. For example, a recent ad shows the new ‘Fido-to-Fido’ package, which enables free calling between Fido customers. The Fido man asks, ‘Is there any better way to stay close?’ while images show a man, followed by a gaggle of friends, who ultimately must escort him into the shower. The tagline is ‘Regrettably, only from Fido.’

So what happened to the iconic Fido dog? Raswork says that it will remain ‘an integral part of the brand’ as it is something that many consumers are still attached to. He points out that a framed dog portrait can be seen in the TV commercials, and that the print advertising still depicts the Fido dogs. (After suffering poor sales in 2002, Microcell seems to be on the mend: the company earned $60.5 million on revenues of $273.2 million in the first half of 2003.)

Rogers AT&T Wireless – which has over 3.7 million customers in Canada – also uses a humorous approach. It has been touting phone capabilities in its one-year-old ad campaign conceived by Toronto agency MacLaren McCann. The ads – one of which scooped up a Silver Lion at Cannes – paint humorous scenarios that highlight wireless benefits such as the ability to receive instant NFL football scores and ringtones. For example, a recent TV spot shows an investigator at the scene of a traffic accident who forgoes his task at hand to share football scores with a colleague via his Rogers phone.

‘Each [ad] is tailored to a particular product or service,’ says Marta Cutler, EVP and national co-CD at MacLaren. ‘It’s all about life-enhancing possibilities.’ Cutler says the target group is wide: ‘Wireless as a brand touches all targets – business, youth and the rest of us in the mass market.’

Meanwhile, cute spokescritters and cool phones continue to be the stars of advertising for Vancouver-based Telus Mobility. A campaign by Toronto’s Taxi for Telus – which has 3.2 million subscribers in Canada – has been running for several years, focusing on juxtaposing exotic creatures and nature elements against a spare, white background. Consumers seem to still be smitten with these animals as the company increased its subscriber base by14% in the first half of 2003 versus the same period last year.

So how do the carriers’ marketing strategies stack up? Strategy asked four observers to share their thoughts.

Darren Darcy, CD, Pineapple Group, Vancouver

I know what it means to drive a Volkswagen, travel with Samsonite luggage or to listen to a Bang & Olufsen, but for the life of me I can’t seem to see what it would mean to be hooked up with any Canadian wireless provider at the moment, other than Bell.

What happened to differentiation?

Other than the new Bell Mobility spots from Rethink (which are fantastic) no one is really illustrating a measurable service benefit other than a short-term offer.

Whether it’s high-speed or wireless, Telus has not convinced me I should be using either service with their animal spots, however charming they may be.

And just because Fido has run some dog-free ads doesn’t mean they are good ads touting a new position.

But anything other than those annoying dog ads (although there have been a couple of good ones) is a welcome change.

Cingular – Fits you best. T-Mobile – Get more from life. Those statements mean something as related to the service. They actively speak to me. We don’t seem to have that focus with our providers here.

I think the problem is that all the players are trying to tap into all areas with the same stuff: one size fits all.

Max Lenderman, CD, Gearwerx, Montreal

Pricing is a pretty big [incentive] for youth when it comes to getting their phones, partly because they aren’t really intimidated by switching. I think the extras that come with the pricing is the driver that is going to make the switch happen (such as ringtones, games, picture savers, SMS capabilities).

Bell Mobility is doing a great job in attracting youth. They have a pretty deep relationship with HMV and Sony Music Canada and I’ve seen them leverage that in local promotions. The Solo guys also have a relationship with the NXNE College Tour and a Canadian Idol connection, plus they’re also sponsoring the Solo Music series and these one-off concerts with hot new bands. Music is that common denominator that can bridge a lot of subsegments of kids.

Rogers also does a great job in doing SMS messaging about concerts. I think kids see them as an innovative company that’s able to bundle well – and that’s good if you’re going for the 20-to-24 group. With their Internet penetration, they can also talk to the kids a little more directly.

[In terms of messaging], the dogs just don’t do it for Fido – they don’t resonate with kids. [The new] Fido ads are really funny – I think they speak to young adults 26 and up, but they don’t have that resonance, that power punch.

John Lee, president, Holmes and Lee, Toronto

When you are not entirely sure as to how to differentiate your client’s product based on its competitive merits, you try to plaster some kind of imagery on the brand and hope that it will get the job done. Try to differentiate with the ads, instead of the product. That is fine, but it is a Band-Aid.

In the wireless category, it appears there are no differences other than promotions and animals. Does anybody investigate or dig for clear productcentric differences that are defendable anymore? Or does the public make their decisions based on whether they like dogs better than monkeys and lizards? Perhaps so, because that’s all they’ve been given.

Whatever happened to the agency challenging the client to ensure that they are presenting a differentiated proposition to the consumer, especially in an intense competitive set? As Tim Delaney recently said in Campaign magazine, ‘I wonder how many agencies are still prepared to question the competitiveness of a product proposition.’ If you take a hard look at this category and the communications product, [apparently] not too many.

To be successful in this category, both client and agency have to dig deeper and challenge themselves to find something more tangible to take to the consumer.

Robert Beaudoin, president, Republik, Montreal

We’ve attained the maturity phase on the product cycle and we’re now smack in the middle of offers. The next phase will likely be trying to cater to specific demographics with everybody offering a very segmented offer of packages – for example, businessmen, youth, etc.

[In Quebec] Bell is trying to approach younger users with a spokesperson. [Benôit Brière as Monsieur B.] impersonates a DJ, but Briere is also being used for every consumer product in Bell’s division and I’m not sure about the effectiveness for reaching the younger segment.

Fido has a good concept – with a straight pitch from the owner and the humorous stuff – but it’s a little far-fetched. They have abandoned the dogs approach but I don’t think they have lost their identification and awareness. I think it’s pretty clear that [the new spots] are Fido spots.

Rogers has achieved a certain positioning by not being strapped to a spokesperson, spending quite a lot of money and catering the vast majority of their investments to the younger crowd with a funny approach.

If I were in the [carriers’] shoes, I would probably go back to the basics – the quality and coverage of their networks and the high quality of services, as well as reliability.