http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/...000976.article

The O2-owned mobile virtual network operator (MNVO) is sponsoring E4’s Big Bang Theory and Rude Tube in a nine month deal.

Giffgaff, which has previously said it would not do “big budget” TV advertising and instead focus on word-of-mouth marketing, says it is now in the position to do more “brand fame building” given the rapid pace at which its network has grown.

Interesting...

Looks like the idea is they blow things up and get the forum to choose what gets blown up, nice idea!.

I don't think the advertising has started yet, I think it starts Thursday which is the Big Bang Theory night on E4.

I hope they have their website issues sorted. With the influx of new customers on this, having random problems such as the one they had on Friday wont be acceptable.

Whilst a single day of poor service is bad news it's hardly compares with launching a national network that was totally disfunctional. That happened in 2003 and tens of thousands got roped into a useless communications service that they had to fight for many months to get released from.

Hopefully lessons have been learned and the Giffgaff proposition is fit for purpose and ready for mainstream exposure on television.

It will do no harm to promote Giffgaff's pricing both for their own uptake and to put pressure on others to improve their pre-paid offerings. Hopefully TalkMobile and others will also start to spread the word about better value available from MVNOs.

What has that got to do with the price of anything in a Giffgaff thread?

That isn't the issue I'm referring to. The link goes to in an issue about being unable to buy goody bags/being unable to use those already bought.

This isn't a one off issue, it has been happening intermittently for many months, so lessons obviously have not been learned.

Giffgaff even delayed the launch of their blackberry add-on due to issues like this, which seem to have not been resolved.

I don't think the vast majority of GG customers experience any problems. In two years I've never had a problem topping up or buying goodybags.
On the other hand I've had to phone Vodafone 5 times to sort issues. None of them are perfect and I wouldn't trust any one of them with my Granny.

I have not had a problem either buying goodybags or using the service.

It's very easy to find issues with any network or MVNO but GiffGaff have the strength of O2 behind them which should make them a reasonable bet for most users who stick to the rules. O2's 900Mhz 2/3G, 1800Mhz 2G and 2100Mhz 3G, available to GG customers should provide basic services across the widest area of the UK and the latest resiliant 3G in most major areas. With no contractual obligation it's a very small bet to try them.

Gosh, very sales pitchy there Wave, as for the 'latest' resilient 3G, could that be HSPA+ as that's the latest 3G right?

No contractual obligation.... so like all other networks then who have a PAYG option.

Anyway, I'd be interested to see the ads if anyone Youtube's them, sounds like a good ad campaign / idea.

I would rather giffgaff passed on the money to us (the customers) by lowering call costs than spend thousands on TV advertising.

That was the point originally, so not have shops or expensive adverts and for the users to get the money for signing up others and spreading the word.

This is what I was thinking. I was under the impression that GiffGaff's whole ethos was having low overheads in order to keep prices low. If they start spending money on ads and sponsorship deals, prices might have inch up if they are not successful in getting a significant amount of new customers. Mind you they may have to spend money improving their infrastructure and backup systems etc.

The Giffgaff proposition has not changed significantly as the new TV advertising on C4 and E4 is a brand awareness campaign which will point potential customers to their website and exitsing peer to peer expansion strategy.

The fact that threads like this have already started to discuss the brand looks like a positive result before the branding hits the airwaves.

More information: http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/News/20...onsorship.aspx

Indeed.

They need to get their act together before recruiting fresh customers. I was due to have my old number migrated on Monday. I'm still waiting, having had an inactive phone all that time.

They're a joke.

Theyve been doing radio advertisting and sponsorship for at least a month

Yes, exactly. These niggling issues have been dragging on for months, despite what certain people would have us believe, and are centred around their website (e.g. in the time I was on them I didn't have problems topping up - reason being because I bought vouchers and topped up via the top up line, which worked every time. Any time I tried topping up on their website it invariably failed, both vouchers and cards.). They know quite well these issues exist, nevertheless they continue unabated, so whether that means lessons have been learned is at best open to question.