I just got back from Digicel Fiji's media launch event which took place early this afternoon at Tanoa Plaza in Suva.
Those guys certainly know how to pump up the press. Good looking, half naked women and men greeted those in attendance. The entire room had been turned Digicel Red from what was clearly a new carpet on the ground to the red drinks in the glasses.
It started promptly at noon which is always nice. Fiji Rugby was in on the action and performed an impressive energy-rich cibi to get things going. Here's a picture, albeit grainy...check out Serevi front and center.
Serevi made the "first" ceremonial mobile call on Digicel's network to launch the service. He called his family back in his village that apparently never had mobile coverage before. He put the microphone up to speaker on the phone and everyone could hear his Mom's voice (or was it has Dad?). Anyway, reception sounded great and was a nice marketing touch.
Digicel also introduced their senior management team and took the opportunity to give Fiji a taste of what their service is all about. As I was sitting there, it was hard for me to watch the media fall over one another to get pictures and not think "but it's just a new mobile phone service!". However, I can drink some of the kool-aid and recognise that their entry into the market signifies a shift in the way telecommunications services work here.
I should probably disclose that Vodafone Fiji is an Oceanic client and a company I've happily worked with for a while. There is no doubt in my mind they will continue to grow and be a better business because of what I was watching today at Tanoa Plaza. It really was a significant milestone for an industry, not just one company.
One thing that Digicel was certainly pushing was their fanatical focus on customer service as a differentiator. Because they're not up and running yet, it's impossible to really see how this will play out but I will be the first person to stand up and point out the fact that customer service is rarely something companies in Fiji push as a key differentiator. I also think that if, for some reason, their support is not as good as what they're touting, it's going to come out pretty quickly. At the very least, it's very nice to see more companies continue to introduce the value of what customer support is about. Digicel is not the only one focusing on it but they appear to be screaming the loudest about it.
As far as their launch announcement goes, they pushed the quality handsets they will be offering to the Fiji market. Pricing appears to start at $19 for a Motorola unit and their first month promotion will include $75 of free talk and text credit.
Other highlights and promises announced include:
- Per second billing
- Top up at over 25,000 locations nationwide
- Personalised voicemail
- Connect first time, every time
- Crystal clear call quality
- Stay connected from Nadi to Suva
- Above 25% savings on calls, text messages, international dialing and fixed lines
From a marketing perspective, letting people know that they can stay connected 100% of the time on a drive from Suva to Nadi is pretty clean. Although most people don't actually need that level of connectivity, it is clearly something that anyone who has driven on the road can RELATE to and that, more than anything else, represents a good message.
One of the other interesting part of Digicel Fiji's service is that they will allow people to top-up with effectively any amount. If someone has $2.45 in their pocket, they can top up with that. That flexibility might go over well with a certain segment of the population.
On the post-pay and business side, they didn't talk a great deal about all their packages but they did push the competitiveness of them. Their Blackberry services will run on a 2.75MHz EDGE network which, if it works as advertised, makes it one of the more attractive mobile Internet solutions available in Fiji.
This is just a high-level overview on what they announced and no doubt tomorrow (Wed, 1 October), Fiji will wake up to a red hue in the air.
For a country that has been so publicly anti-monopoly during the past few years, I'm interested in seeing how Digicel's entry into Fiji actually does play out. Although I don't personally believe there will be a massive tsunami of customers to Digicel in the first few months, I'm way into the volume of their launch. It'll be a case study on explosive marketing and it's clear that Fiji is operating in a competitive mobile telecommunications environment.
Gotta love a free concert, too.
