Launching a new cellular network in an already saturated market is not an easy task. The agency’s aim was to create a pre-launch campaign that would own the country’s imagination, at the same time making the consumer familiar with the brand’s name through the spoken word. “And we did,” says Vanessa Pearson, Executive Creative Director at McCann Erickson. She adds, “Within a few days we had created a media maelstrom.”

The aim of the entire campaign is to give meaning to the brand 8.ta over four stages. Says Andrew Shuttleworth, Managing Director of McCann Erickson: “A fresh, unique and authentically South African new mobile operator had been launched, but the country didn’t need just another cellular network. It needed a network that truly delivered on its promises to make communication more accessible to more South Africans.”

With its 'emoticon' brand advertisement, which expresses the brand’s promise, 8.ta is not just about telecommunications made simple, but also about making your life more simple, hassle-free, so that you can progress and move forward, to make you an amazing South African. After all, amazing things happen when you say “heita”!