Koodo is working out

Though the official press announcement is supposed to come tomorrow, Telus has kicked into high gear the advertising blitz for its new Koodo mobile brand.

TV ads are in regular rotation now and Telus put a Koodo cover wrap around today’s Metro.

Promising to cut the fat from the bills of its customers the advertising and collateral features over-the-top personal trainer types in vintage workout wear from the 80s. Think 20 Minute Workout – lots of leotard and neon, but even happier faces smiling back at the viewer.

The headline on one brochure reads “We’re the lean, mean bill fat-fighting machine!” while the Metro wrap declared, “Fat-free mobility is here.”

TV ads follow the same theme with one trainer calling on her students to “Talk, and text, and talk, and text.” The ads end with a highly synthesized “Koodo” soundmark (it is pronounced ‘kudo’).

Telus hasn’t been saying anything about the new brand, but Koodo is clearly targeting the youth market.
While Telus still has its Mike brand, it has lacked a secondary mass-appeal brand that its competitors–Bell with Solo and Rogers with Fido–have had for years now.

Telus seemed to have the answer in mid-2006 when it partnered with Amp’d to bring its youth targeted service north of the border, but Amp’d floundered in the U.S. and Telus ended the arrangement last summer.

Long-time Telus agency Taxi has been very tight-lipped about the launch, unwilling to even acknowledge working on the new assignment, but it’s believed Taxi 2 is handling it. Taxi New York handled the Amp’d brand in the U.S. and Taxi 2 was to introduce Amp’d to Canada but the deal went bad before the creative team really got to stretch its legs.

Perhaps learning from its experience with Amp’d, which offered lots of mobile video and entertainment options, (recall the guy on the bus calling on other passengers to fight, kiss, and dance) Koodo seems to go in the opposite direction. “Do you prefer to watch TV on a TV, not on a phone? If so, Koodo Mobile is for you,” states the brochure.

Thank you Telus. I'm going to take this as a tacit acknowledgement that wireless data transfer rates in Canada are much too high and that we'll all be better if the wireless spectrum auction finally allows for a new player to join the game. –David Brown