There are a few South African brands, the thought of which carry with them a warm “trigger of nostalgia” that you can feel is buried deep down in the space somewhere between “vivid memories of unboxing your very first cellphone” and “the feeling of walking gingerly into the vast, sterile foyer of your first serious job”.
Lion Lager is one of them; Mainstay is another. And for some inexplicable reason, Cell C holds a special space in my vast library of ol’ “feel good” trademarks.
Inexplicable because I personally have never owned a Cell C cellphone contract or have ever even approached them for a casual quote (just to see if I should consider migrating away from the long-term relationship that I do have with my mobile phone service provider).
The brand is perhaps just such an integral part of the social fabric of our country that one just can’t help but feel something for it regardless of whether you have ever bought anything from them or not.
When they first started out, Cell C was a jarringly edgy brand.
I clearly remember one of their ads, featuring a rather nerdy-looking guy waking up in bed with the arms of two young women draped over him, accompanied by the classic copy line “Tell somebody”, causing quite a stir. “Cell C for yourself…” was the advertising payoff line back then and it’s one that really stuck.
Long before he was an international superstar, Trevor Noah was recruited as their unofficial spokesperson. He was their CEO, the Chief Experience Officer and did a superb job of making the Cell C brand so much more personally relatable than the other options that were available.
At one point Zola 7 was a feature of their brand, as was that lady with the very whispery, unnecessarily smoky-sounding voice. These days those smoky-voice ads would be called “ASMRvertising” and probably have marketing academics studying them for their groundbreaking approach.
Winning countless ad industry awards year in and year out was par for the course for Cell C.
They weren’t afraid to take a chance. Making fun of themselves gave the brand an aura that can only really be described as similar to that of the allure of Richard Branson’s Virgin.
But Cell C as a business has really struggled for a while. Profitability has eluded them throughout their existence. Competing against their enormous rivals — the first- and second-most valuable brands in South Africa — has taken its toll.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Cell number recycling by SA networks leaves customers fuming and inconvenienced
A few years ago, in an attempt to reduce costs, they closed the majority of their retail outlets, retrenched staff and had to
recapitalise the business. Just this week they made the announcement to