Zain vs. Umniah, and a new advertising war in Jordan
The last couple of weeks Jordanian newspaper were almost ad-less as telecom operators went through some sort of hibernation before summer, but it seems like Umniah and Zain decided to break the silence and engage in an early battle. Zain launched a new offer called “Zain 5″, while Umniah released the “Umniah Impossible 10″ offer.
The hand in Zain ad covers the sentence Talk is Cheap, it was labeled by “Bebalash”, which means “for free”, Umniah removed erased a letter from that word so the whole sentence reads “no way, comparison is impossible”.
Zain 5: You can call 5 special numbers inside Zain network for free, and you can call other Zain subscribers for 5 piasters only, but you have to pay 1 JD every week as subscription fees.
Umniah Impossible 10: You can call 10 Umniah subscribers for free, not 5, you can call other Umniah subscribers for only 1 piasters, not 5, and you have to pay 1 JD as subscription fees once a month, not every week.
I think they are acting silly, every company should has its own strategy, which should be based on studies and market research that help in realizing what your customers need and what is your next step, but what the hell is this?
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Ads, Amazing, Controversial, Cool, Dump, Funny, Interesting, Jordan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
on March 30, 2008 at 7:10 am Ghassan Yonis wrote:
yeah :).. it was hilarious seeing these ads on the newspapers.. but I have two comments:
1. why this is happing this intensely all of a sudden! there must be something going on behind closed doors..
2. where’s Orange from all of this.. are they waiting for them to finish each other (not sure how) or they’re saving most of their advertising budget and hot offers till the summer!
on March 30, 2008 at 8:25 am amjad mahfouz wrote:
COOK FIGHT , Im a Zain subscriber but Umnieh rules this one, I’m moving …. sho sar be Orange ….
thx for the share man
on March 30, 2008 at 8:44 am amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
Hi Samer:)
I think you have the order wrong. ZAIN launched the “talk is cheap” and then the “FREE TO 5 FAV NUMBERS” as series ads on the same day. UMNIAH reacted with the “IMPOSSIBLE TEN” and ZAIN (For the first time) reacted to a competitive ad with “5 in the hand is better than 10 on the tree” which UMNIAH answered with “BAS BALASH you can’t compare”…
The real fear here was the stopper strategy of UMNIAH with their first reaction ad. Their product was not available in stores (only 3 outlets) and they only placed 2000 kits in the market with a subscription of 17 JD’s. As history shows I love reaction ads, but I dont think that Umniah’s product lives upto it. Seriously how many of us have 10 special Umniah numbers we call regularly? Or how many of us have 10 umniah numbers in our contacts:)
Don’t make this personal guys…just messing around, love the new logo Samer…
on March 30, 2008 at 9:49 am Abu Ali wrote:
Amer, calm down man…Rana well done.
And nothing personal
on March 30, 2008 at 9:56 am amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
It’s “AMRE”…didnt understand your comment sorry?
on March 30, 2008 at 10:11 am Abu Ali wrote:
Amer or AMRE… doesn’t mater… nothing important.
on March 30, 2008 at 10:48 am amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
you’re right a persons name doesnt matter
on March 30, 2008 at 12:01 pm Sinan Gharaibeh wrote:
There are two kinds of advertising agencies in this world, one that can come up with original ideas, and one that feeds on it.
Come on Umniah, get a life and do something original.
CREATIVITY PARASITES!
on March 30, 2008 at 12:41 pm Abu Ali wrote:
Well done Rana Hamarneh/Adpro…brilliant.
on March 30, 2008 at 2:42 pm amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
3ala Ari … whoops I meant Abu Ali…(like you said a name spelling doesnt matter), are you a disgruntled ex-employee?
on March 30, 2008 at 3:18 pm nasimjo wrote:
http://nasimjo.blogspot.com/2008/03/umniah-rocks-gsm-market-in-jordan.html
on March 30, 2008 at 3:43 pm Chaos wrote:
it’s a reaction ad, the creativity is not the goal here
but people are acting mad, i passed by umniah main branch @ 8 in the morning & the electronic door wasn’t closing bcoz of the loads of people in there!
it’s funny to watch such a war
on March 30, 2008 at 3:54 pm amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
Chaos, yes you are right there was a riot and there was one in Irbid too, do you know why? Because they only put 2000 kits on the market. A stopper strategy is one where you come up with a quick silencing ad to stop a momentum shift, but sometimes it slaps you in the face as would be the case of the people who wanted the umniah line and didnt go to one of the 17 outlets that were selling them.
on March 30, 2008 at 11:57 pm Rani Dababneh wrote:
lol i also wrote about this in March 28 ;p .. and updating lol
check it out here:
Zain VS. Umniah - Funny - Ads and Packages - ???? ????????
on March 30, 2008 at 11:58 pm Rani Dababneh wrote:
lol i also wrote about this in March 28 ;p .. and updating lol
check it out here:
http://rani-dababneh.blogspot.com/2008/03/zain-vs-umniah-ads-and-packages.html
on March 31, 2008 at 1:54 am Moey wrote:
Amre, you didn’t check my creativity call for zain? please do and leave a comment
on March 31, 2008 at 8:11 am amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
Hi Moey I did read through it. Thanks for that insight and your Sama3ni artwork is very nice, seriously. Yet we have guidelines we have to work with and the extreme competitive nature of the local market vs. the markets you highlighted calls for very direct tactical advertising. Trust me the creative dept would love to let lose on ZAIN, but the guideline restrictions are very tough on us:)
on March 31, 2008 at 8:12 am amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
Good morning … did anyone go out and try and buy a Umniah Mustaheel line today?
on March 31, 2008 at 9:42 am Abu Ali wrote:
Yes ya manyak I bought one for you…
Instead of doing nothing, go pay salaries for your employees..sorry I mean Haitham Dahleh employees..since they didn’t get any salary for the last 3 months…
Again briliant ad Rana/Adpro.
on March 31, 2008 at 9:50 am he wrote:
where did you get that from??? its totaly untrue, am an employee and my salary is always in the bank on time.
on March 31, 2008 at 10:34 am Anonymous wrote:
From now we’ll call him Dabu Ali, because you are a:
- “Disgruntled ex-employee”; now this is very clear.
- Dyslexic; Amer or Amre is the same to him.
- Defeated personality; Abu Ali is usually a description for a guy who’s overestimating himself.
on March 31, 2008 at 10:39 am inferno wrote:
WOW!! how did you know that Haitham Dahleh is a partner.
This is a big fucking achievement.
I am impressed man. Are you a CIA agent?.
URGH
on March 31, 2008 at 11:36 am amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
“Ya manyak” I am glad your vocabulary stretches that far…so mr. inferiority complex, tell us who you are oh better yet…if you bought one for me please do stop by and hand deliver it to me.
Finally dont spread lies ari because since April 15, 2001 we have NEVER had a delay in salaries. So go back to having your adpro wet dreams and if you have ten friends, try to convince them to switch over to Umniah so you guys can have phone sex for free…
on March 31, 2008 at 11:49 am Abu Ali wrote:
Amre u have Schizophrenia, bcoz u r:
Amre & Amer
Anonymous
He
inferno…….etc.
I will recommend u to play role in “Fantastic Four” to become “Fantastic Five”….hahahaha
on March 31, 2008 at 12:10 pm he wrote:
i think samer can confirm that, people read blogs you know.
on March 31, 2008 at 12:12 pm he wrote:
and by the way i know who is inferno and, and its not amre too.
on March 31, 2008 at 2:10 pm amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
My bitch…(Abu Ali), once again the generic defence emerges, whenever anyone contradicts you, the assumption is made that everyone else is one person with a conspiracy theory against you. Please have the blog owner identify to you if it is the same person or not and rather make accusations why dont you tell us who you are. Until such a time personally I wont bother answering you anymore…bye bye!
on March 31, 2008 at 2:46 pm Maha Shiekh AKA Rotten Eggs wrote:
Moey,
You never post comments are that would actually insult your ugly design, do you?
Rotten Eggs.
on March 31, 2008 at 3:31 pm Sinan Gharaibeh wrote:
Abu Ali’s last comment is a very good example on my previous comment about UNORIGINAL creativity, “Fantastic Five!” no wonder now why he likes Umniah ad in the first place.
So again there are people who create characters like “Fantastic Four”, and there are others who build their vulgar sense of humor on it e.g.”Fantastic Five”.
Abu Ali I don’t want you get desperate reading my words, and stop
trying to live your life. and I am sure you’ll pass by times when you start saying to your self “What Sinan wrote is meaningless, he just hates me and want to criticize me”, and maybe you’ll try to suicide!.
but believe me this is not what matters, what matters more is finding yourself and what you want. Get serious, get original, get a life. At least when you do that, you wont get fired from your company, and then get involved in the advocacy of other companies work.
Sinan Gharaibeh
2008 Spring
on March 31, 2008 at 9:33 pm Peace wrote:
It is so unethical to involve the consumer in such a war, it is very nice to propose offers but credebility is a very important issue and I think Umniah started this war, and non of these Agnecies should get creadit on the expense of the Client especially that all these ads were just tacticals with good offers..
P.S. tomorrow we will see which company’s comsumers benefit more!
on March 31, 2008 at 10:21 pm amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
Very well said PEACE…the beneficiary is the consumer…and the credibility is on the provider…
on April 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm Rotten Eggs wrote:
Damn you for being such a critical ass. You only live up to what you say. In this case you are boy who cried wolf, you’re the middle man, not even close to being what you claim. The end consumer suffers, and the industry gains! AD AGENCIES ARE A MARGINAL ERROR.
long live HSBC.
on April 1, 2008 at 4:11 pm amre husseini - AKA BITME wrote:
Rotten Eggs, seriously your comment made no sense to me, but love your closing line “Long Live HSBC” a brand with an equity built SOLELY by the success of their advertising!