CSL gets back to basics in pitch for New World Mobility

Hong Kong CSL, which has worked hard to lure image-conscious big spenders to its 3G multimedia mobile-phone services, is trying the unthinkable to build a following for its recently acquired New World Mobility - get back to basics, is the message, and simply get connected.

New World Mobility's recently launched 'Truly Connected' marketing campaign highlights the brand's modest ambition to be a basic mobile-service operator and lovable friend of folk and families who like tech intrusion into their lives kept to a sensible minimum - no 3G, no streaming video, no mobile television.

Or almost the basics.

As a bait for customers who think phones should be used as, well, phones, there is a new voice-SMS service called Bubble Talk that is set for a trial run and used to send short messages in voice instead of text. CSL, the largest local operator in terms of users, already pitches its 3G multimedia services to business customers through its 1010 brand, and to the young and trendy under the One2Free label.

'The repositioning of New World Mobility under the CSL brand portfolio is a move to build a preference among the mass-user group in Hong Kong,' CSL general manager for marketing communications Michelle Au said.

'Our strategy is to portray the power of communication - it is so strong that it pulls families closer together. In doing that, we leverage on local insights to create empathy with the target users.'

CSL's creative agency Leo Burnett has assumed the same role of New World Mobility for future marketing plans. Before joining CSL, New World Mobility also targeted the youngster segment, with gimmick-oriented television commercials in 2002 and 2004.