Ding! Ding! Ding! Round 1 goes to…. bMobile?

bMobile is ‘kicking’ up some fun at Digicel’s expense. A bMobile branded street fighter is seen knocking out ‘Redz,’ dressed down to his face paint as Digicel’s ‘Iron Top Up’ character. These two ads came head to head (as it were) in Sunday’s Express, Digicel occupying the back cover, with bMobile almost occupying the inside cover.

If it’s an attempt at a viral campaign, it would be amusing to me to see bMobile’s folks at McCann really step up with some more marketing efforts outside of a press ad.

Blockbuster Value

Digicel had recently mined musical genres as fodder for ad campaigns with their Turn Up De Value Record series, presenting Bollywood fare in Ashwarifree, Pop & Dance with Lady Blah Blah, Hip-hop using J.Free and Funky Free as the James Brown-lookalike funk entry.

Digicel now seems to be turning from music to movies with their Blockbuster Value series. They’ve begun with the ‘kick-up’ genre of movies. I predict we’ll see Western themes, Bond/spy movie themes, another nod to Bollywood, and possibly a Romantic Comedy spoof.

Iron Top Up on TV

Iron Top up on the Web

But Digicel’s Iron Top Up, doesn’t just appear in the Press & on TV, he’s on the web! Currently on Digicel’s Fan Page, submit a photo of yourself dressed as a ‘kick-up’ character to win cash, credit and a free phone. So far, they’ve got roughly 70 entries in the 1st week of the 2-week competition.

Ad vs Ad Wars

But in a more introspective vein, in the ad vs ad wars – who really comes up on top? Is it the consumers, whose cash pays for the marketing? Is it the competitors, who’re vying for market share? Is it the newspapers & magazines, whose booking quota gets filled?

Is anybody looking out for the man in the street by actually providing blockbuster value?