Reynolds fronts for the new era of XT
Telecom is proving it still has a sense of humour, with a new XT ad to launch tonight. The spot is by Chameleon Television, a boutique agency by Nic Craig (MD and producer) and Simon Shattky (creative director).
The ad features dramatic wide shots of the Greenstone River in the South Island, with Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds wandering about fly fishing. There’s hero music and you’ll wince at the clichéd nature of it all – until Reynolds declares XT even works in the Greenstone Valley.
He dials: “Hello… hello? Bugger.” But just kidding!
We’re not 100% XT really does work in the Greenstone Valley, but maybe some intrepid adventurers on the network can give it a test next time they’re in the area.
Still, it’s great to see the big corporate having a sense of humour about its predicament and PR nightmares, and taking the mickey. Self-deprecation is fun.
The soundtrack is by Murray Grindlay; writers were Andy Lish, Simon Shattky and Paul Reynolds. The spot was produced by Mr Craig and directed by Mr Shattky.
The ad is a forerunner for a bigger retail campaign, a sort of short-term stake in the ground, to try to change the game for the company.
“Our brief was to telegraph to New Zealand that Telecom ʻgets it,” said Mr Craig.
“We needed to send a genuine signal of behaviour change from the CEO to all their stakeholders in a public fashion. We used self-deprecating humour to achieve this. The mere fact that Telecom would take the piss out of themselves demonstrates this culture shift.”
CEOs featuring in ads? Well, are we making a habit out of it?!
It's been many months since we've seen XT on our screens; it's understood Mr Reynolds will front the campaign for its first three weeks – and we won't be seeing the now-infamous Richard Hammond ads again.
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Comments and questions27
Excellent ad - up front acknowledgment of the issues and a straightforward promise that we're past them.
I can only hope that that isn't his real ringtone though.
You have got to be kidding. I can't wait for people to take the pi-- out of Telecom on this one. A Telco network is a serious business. Lets see the people who had their 111 calls fail due to XT outages. Telecomcan't laugh this off at the expense of loved ones lives who were put at risk.
This ad just shows you that Paul Reynolds needs to go. He can go fishing back in England would be my preference.
that's a distribution fail...
Isn't it off the cheese ad?
good things take time?
Richard, for some reason the sound wouldn't play when it was uploaded to YouTube. Hence it is embedded in the site.
So it's a YouTube fail. Goodness! I'm not sure I can cope with life if YouTube fails. Furthermore, I'm not sure MC Grammar can cope with the twisted noun-i-fication of the word "fail". Or Reynolds' adverb abuse in the ad. Or MC Grammar's inability to remember the correct term for "noun-i-fication". It's all over. (Sob.)
Hey, so what happened to Mr Spudley...? Just went to send him a message and he seems to have vanished.
Well Daniel, sources say Mr Spudley has been continually unimpressed with the wholesale nastiness on Twitter, particularly by certain types after a certain item appeared on Close Up last week – and so he has decamped permanently to the vegetable patch.
Good to see Telecom firing up the little agencies and getting 'the hair' out there. Nice one. Reynolds...Paul Reynolds.... #007
Well that's a shame. Give my best to him, Hazel.
Yes..... lets put the CEO who earns 5- 6 million a year in an ad showing him fly fishing in the South Island, complete with slow motion and helicopter shots (Im sure every Telecom customer and employee goes fly fishing, don't they)...mmmm...what a great message and image that sends. Not elitist at all.
Great way to connect with the everyday hard working customer!
Telecom...what is happening to you? Didn't Mr Reynolds say hang on a minute this may not be the best look for me or the company?
Elitist or aspirational? Perhaps the everyday hard working customer you seem to know so much about wouldn't mind dreaming a little...
bluehorseshoe - Contrary to what you may believe - Paul Reynolds is not a robot, does get some spare time and does actually fly fish. :)
Well I don't get it.....Showing the CEO fly fishing after all the XT outages, the 111 dramas, the share price at a record low, with loads of staff now being made redundant...Yeah thats asprirational..............what a dream, or asleep at the wheel and out of touch.
Crikey...lame as
Frankly lost on me...all I know is the lofty twit should get his head out of the clouds and stop adding insult to injury.
Like the average kiwi when not struggling with the costly joys of suburbia apspires to a bit of fly fishing...wow thats about 200th on my list of things to do before I die...maybe not...never know who I might meet...schmoozing with millionaires is so yesterday.
How come Saatchi's didn't do this?
Bloody hell haters, get a life. It's a good ad, whether you're a fan of Telecom or not. It pushes the appropriate buttons very well.
I don't think it would matter what Telecom came out with, you haters would still find something to dislike. I pity those having to live with such miserable sods. Isn't NZ all about the great outdoors, maybe you should get off your couches and make an effort to enjoy NZ. And isn't the whole point that the guy is trying to put a human face to the supposedly big hair gorilla? I think it's clever and well thought out.
It's not "hateful" to think this ad ridiculous:
1. XT was a complete, appalling and utterly avoidable failure that only goes to show that Telecom - expensive CEO and all - are a monopoly-derived regulatory rent seeking incumbent with all the usual failings that go with that - bad systems, bad service, bad marketing and all the bureaucracy and unwarranted arrogance that go with being a big, unwieldy company.
2. If your mobile communication is not time-critical, then, sure, XT being a colossal failure doesn't much matter and the idea of a 30-day trial might do some good. For those of us who actually need to be contactable immediately, your money back after 30 days doesn't do much good.
3. The humour and the little nationalistic appeal is just offensive. The subtext is this: "New Zealand is a small market from which we've derived monopoly profits for many years - so many, and so profitably, that we forgot how to maintain technical competence and thought that we could get away with a corner-cutting system to make up for just how backward we've been. Now, we're basically stuffed. If, for some reason, you haven't switched to Vodafone already, perhaps this patronising crap will give you good reason. Me, I'm back off to Scotland with my bonus."
4. And this isn't a human face. We've seen PR all over the news. What we haven't seen is minimal technical competence and a failure to take responsibility.
If Telecom really wants to do this sort of thing, how about this:
"I'm the Chief Executive of Telecom. Not long ago, we launched a new network. It failed repeatedly and there's no excuse for that. I've made every, and I mean every, effort that I and everyone else here could think of to provide a network that's up to scratch. I know that you may have a hard time trusting us. So, here's the deal: if XT fails for more than six hours any time in the next year, I'll take personal responsibility, sack everyone involved and then resign and repay my entire salary for that year. And you'll get your money back."
Agree with CJ - get a life. 'A Real Business Owner' should be aware that Reynolds is Scottish and not English. (I'm sure you don't like to be called Australian.)
City dudes - fly fishing is neither expensive nor elitist in NZ - you can buy an annual licence for less than the price of a media lunch and the kit would cost you less than an annual gym membership.
As to Reynolds' casting technique - not bad - but he's still 'only kidding' as there's no line going out (no pun intended).
Really? Because he's on an ad doing something a lot of kiwis do, he "needs to go"?
Tell me, exactly, what he has done so wrong that would require the need for him to be given the boot. Come on - provide some actual evidence that he has in any way been incompetent, derelict in his responsibilities, or has in any way try to make excuses or hide from the issues.
And don't roll out the XT failure as "evidence". It was caused by equipment and process failure, and he had nothing to do with the implementation or development of the network.
Indeed, I challenge anybody to state what more Reynolds could have done or said in the aftermath of the outages.
CJ...I think the concept that people are trying to get across is that for the hard working tradesman, truck drivers,self employed etc, etc that were effected by the XT outages and even shareholders that now see the company is strife(share price hit a new record low yesterday) watching an ad of the CEO enjoying a casual time flyfishing in the South Island is perhaps not the best look....
Interested parties should check out this article:
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/telecom-s-reynolds-tight-lines-tickle-124112
I'm sure if Reynolds can have VDSL internet connected to his residence he can arrange for an XT celltower next to the Greenstone.
Paul Reynolds elitist? Never.
Too easy RTJ....failure to come up with something solid in terms of company seperation, mulitiple executives leaving the company (including the CFO he appointed himself), telecom retail being a mess(mixed messages,saatchi dramas,etc), company share price currently being at an all time low,...but hey he's worth 6 million bucks a year according to you...and as requested no mention of the XT fiasco.
and dont forget he's p*ssing all over a lot of loyal broadband customers (to reign in a couple of spoilers) as we speak.
Can someone answer the Saatchis question? I'm sure they presented better solutions than this.
Max, I like it. I like it a lot.
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