On Friday June 11 ThisDay was yellow. MTN Yello. Almost every page of the paper had been washed in yellow, as part of a celebratory campaign from MTN, and it has been the talk of the town since it hit the streets.
General manager of MTN South Africa Bernice Samuels explains that it is one leg of a campaign — to celebrate 10 years of cellular freedom, 10 years of the MTN network and the company’s impressive results, which were announced this week.
“It’s our way of saying ‘thank you’ to South Africa and South Africans,” she says. “It’s a tangible demonstration of our presence in South Africa, and our support of South Africans.”
Of course, it would have had more impact if every paper in the country turned yellow overnight (given an unlimited budget), but it appears as if ThisDay was the only paper that was amenable to the idea.
According to Lynn Diab, senior manager of media strategy, planning and buying at MTN, the company came up with the idea some time back and approached several newspapers, asking if they would turn just one page yellow.
ThisDay was the only paper that was willing to take the risk, no doubt allowing MTN to take the entire budget for that idea and blow it on one brand.
Good news for ThisDay, but also a revelation that casts some doubt on the paper’s decision to go “yello”.
Newspapers are, as a rule, unwilling to do anything that might be seen as impacting on their editorial integrity, and the yellow pages have stirred up some vociferous debate in the industry. There are those who are openly questioning if the paper has “sold its soul”.
ThisDay chief executive Graeme King, however, is adamant that it has not, and that the advertising did nothing to damage ThisDay‘s editorial integrity.
“It’s just a yellow wash on the pages,” he says, adding that the newspaper did draw the line at putting the wash over its masthead and on its opinion pages. “Those are sacrosanct.”
King adds, somewhat proudly, that the client paid a premium for the wash, but is unwilling to divulge the amount.
This, of course, leads one to another conclusion — that the paper is simply desperate for revenue.
“The timing is bad,” King admits, “especially given the latest round of rumours. But I can assure you that this has been planned since March, after we approached MTN and requested a meeting to brainstorm ideas about how we could be more innovative for them.”
Samuels confirms this, adding that ThisDay really took the initiative once it was presented with the original idea.
“They introduced on-the-ground support through ‘Yello Day’ posters, they dressed their sellers in MTN Yello T-shirts, and they even delivered copies of the newspaper to our offices across the country,” she says.
When asked about the impact on editorial integrity, her answer is as firm as King’s — “Absolutely not. And you need only pick up the front page to see why — there’s a huge swastika emblazoned in the middle of our yello page! My heart sank when I saw it, but that’s what a newspaper does, that’s what it has to do.”
Of course, the debate will rage on. But it’s interesting to note at a time like this, that newspapers are always berated for not being parti-cularly innovative when it comes to advertising. Yet, when they do take the risks, they tend to catch it in the neck.