MTN seems to have picked up some great ideas lateley. The first being their "Rock, Shop and Recover" promotion and the second, their latest TV Ad, looking a lot like the South African version of "Wusup".
Rock Sop and Recover was a promotion run by Castlemaine Lager in the UK, where I was the creative director of the campaign (I still have all the samples). The present MTN Rock Sop and Recover campaign bares an 'uncanny' resemblance apart from the destinations.
The latest MTN TV Ad cannot be mistaken for the hugely successful Budweiser Ads of a few years ago now translated and Africanised.
So what's going on at MTN? Has the agency run out of ideas? With all the talent in MTN's agency, I find that hard to believe.
Both of these campaigns were extremely successful for the beer brands that they promoted and I am sure they can cross the divide to the mobile market but why do it and not even 'try' to rework the ideas into something new? Time, creative director on holiday, lack of respect for the original creatives? Who knows?
At this point the phrase that comes to mind is: "Originality is great, but plagiarism is quicker". I wonder how the agency feels getting paid for other people's concepts?
Anyway, I have a stack of BTL concepts in my archieves at home that go back a good few years so don't feel embarrassed to ask next time you need an idea.
