MTN has won a partial victory following a complaint lodged at the Advertising Standards Authority over a television advertisement flighted in October 2013 by rival Vodacom.
The commercial centres on a fictional family, the Khumalos. When a member of the family expresses frustration over her network’s dropped calls and lack of service, another member suggests she switch to Vodacom.
He explains this by saying that Vodacom has the “widest network coverage, so you get quality connections. That means less dropped calls so you don’t waste money or get frustrated. Overall, Vodacom has the best and fastest 3G and LTE [long-term evolution] network for smartphones, so you can enjoy uninterrupted streaming and superfast connection speeds. In fact, Vodacom is the best network in South Africa. You should switch to Vodacom now and get the best Internet and calling experience.”
MTN complained that it’s impossible for Vodacom, or any other network, to substantiate the “blanket, unqualified claims” made in the ad. “The claims imply that Vodacom’s network is the best at all times, in all regions of the country. This, however, is simply not true.”
The operator argued that there are “numerous variable factors that affect the quality of a network, including the load on the network, the type of device being used, the geographic area in which the user is operating the network, the time of day, seasonal and weather factors, work being done on the network, and whether there are power outages in the area”.
“It would only be possible for Vodacom to make its claims if there was a standardised approach adopted across the industry to measure quality and provide benchmarking. This has yet to be established,” MTN argued.
In addition, it said that the “reasonable consumer” would interpret the disparaging remarks in the ad, in particular the frustration experienced by the family member with her current network, to refer to MTN, which was “the only direct competitor of Vodacom in the smartphone market”.
“The remarks in the commercial seek to devalue and ‘trash’ MTN’s network offering in comparison to Vodacom’s. The commercial also makes use of the phrase ‘manga manga’, which means ‘liar liar’.”
In reply, Vodacom submitted a report from a Michael Charnas of Catalyst Research & Strategy in support of its claims, along with other supporting documents.
It argued that its claim of having the “best” network for smartphones did not mean it must be the best at all times in all regions, as submitted by MTN in its complaint. “Vodacom claims to have the best network, not a perfect network. It is patently obvious that any non-perfect network will have times and areas where it does not perform at its best. It is moot to present single instances of poor(er) performance as it is irrelevant to the claim.”
A larger percentage of MTN’s customers lodge complaints on HelloPeter, a consumer complaints website, and Vodacom has received nearly twice as many compliments per complaint than MTN, it said.
Vodacom also disputed MTN’s allegation that a standardised approach to measuring quality and providing benchmarking had not been established. It said multiple standard methods to determine performance, coverage and quality existed. These included call setup success rate and call retention rate for voice call quality, coverage threshold measured using the power ratio of mobile signals, and download and upload performance in megabits per second.
Among other supporting evidence, Vodacom said that data supplied by Ookla, an Internet performance measurement website, showed that it had a faster network than MTN’s. It said, too, that it had more 3G and 4G base stations that its rival, offering greater population coverage.
In addition, Vodacom said its ad did not “trash” MTN but rather promoted its own merits and not the demerits of competitor networks. The term “manga manga” should be interpreted in its colloquial sense and in the context of the commercial as a whole, with the reasonable interpretation of “Vodacom is the better option” attributed to the phrase in context. “It is in the nature of advertising to entice consumers to switch brands, which is what the commercial communicates.”
In its ruling, the Advertising Standards Authority found both in favour of some aspects of MTN’s complaint, but dismissed other parts.
On whether the Vodacom ad made disparaging remarks about MTN and its products, it said it was not convinced that consumers would watch it and understand it to refer to MTN. It dismissed this part of the complaint.
“The commercial does not appear to make any direct or indirect reference to MTN,” the ruling said. “The argument that MTN is Vodacom’s only direct competitor in the smartphone market is not convincing.”
On whether Vodacom has the best and fastest 3G and LTE network for smartphones, that it had fewer dropped calls and that it had the best Internet and calling experience, the authority found that all of these claims were substantiated.
However, the authority ruled in favour of MTN and against Vodacom over the latter’s claim that it has the widest network coverage. This was because of an absence of “clear and unequivocal verification” of the claim. The claim must be withdrawn with immediate effect.
On the claim that Vodacom has the best network in South Africa, the authority found that it failed to prove that it had the widest network coverage. Accordingly, it could not, in the context of the offending ad, claim to have the best network and was therefore in breach of the advertising codes and the claim must be withdrawn. — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media
