EXCLUSIVE: Telstra is set to be rebranded with the national carrier set to launch a multimillion dollar national marketing campaign to introduce a “new look” and a brand new 4G Wireless network.Marketing documents obtained by SmartHouse reveal that Telstra is looking to dominate advertising in Australia between the key dates of 18th September to the 27th September. This will be followed up with several new 4G products going on sale on 2nd of October.
Several vendors are set to launch new 4G enabled smartphone and tablets in the week prior to the launch among those vendors will be Samsung, HTC and Motorola.
The campaign which will have several components is designed to “Establish Telstra’s connection story”, Telstra has told vendors that the campaign has to deliver a “new point of view and vision for the future.
A key word in the campaign is “Connection”.
The document claims that the new 4G network will be the fastest Wireless network in Australia with speeds over 48Mbs capable on various devices, however these speeds are limited to select metropolitan areas.
Recently Telstra begin selling USB modems for its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network which is limited to five kilometres from the GPO in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane initially.
In trials held in Melbourne last year, Telstra achieved speeds of 149.4 megabits per second for download and 59Mbps for uploads using 20MHz of spectrum.
A second field trial using 10MHz of spectrum, also in the 1800MHz band, demonstrated peak downlink speeds of 69.3Mbps and peak uplink speeds of 24Mbs.
According to SmartHouse sources new 4G products will go on sale in Telstra shops, JB Hi Fi and selected Telstra dealers on the 2nd of October.
A new “Visual ID” launch will be rolled out on the 27th of September prior to the October on sale date for the new 4G product range.
The document claims that Telstra intend to use “OOH, Press, TV, Radio, PR” to out manoeuvre their competitors.
The Marketing Director of a vendor who supplied SmartHouse with evidence of the relaunch said “This is the start of a brand new era for Telstra. This is brand Thodey (reference to David Thodey the CEO of Telstra) being stamped on the carrier as they move forward into a new NBN world where innovative products and marketing will be critical to their success”.
“During the past year Telstra has added over a million new customers. They now have to hold onto these customers while also selling them additional Telstra products whether it is a Foxtel and T box, Telstra TV service or a new notebook or Wireless data plan. We have been told that Telstra is set to invest further in their own retail network and that they are currently planning to launch several new products over the next 12 months”.
The creative agency for the Campaign is DDB and the buying agency OMD.
