So in case you missed it Telkom are in the process of bigging up their new fibre broadband technology, calling on the help of the world’s fastest man to do so. Their latest ad features Jamaican speedster Usain Bolt with a short shout out to his fans in this neck of the woods, something we can be pretty sure didn’t come cheap.

Now I think we can all make the connection here, it doesn’t take a marketing guru to see what they’re trying to say. You spend the big money and you get the big names, a face recognisable the world over and a great spokesman for many brands we are very fond of.

There’s another angle to consider however, and that has to do with how they should really be spending their huge marketing budgets. Given that here at home many of our athletes struggle to land sponsors, finding themselves in financially precarious positions when looking to compete overseas, are there not better ways Telkom may have put this money to use?

Yes companies are free to spend their marketing budgets as they see fit, we’re not saying otherwise, but this desire to grab international names at huge costs seems wanton when we have someone like Wayde van Niekerk here at home. The 200m and 400m star was recently named SA Sportsman of the Year and his name should be one that every South African has on their lips – could he not have been a candidate?

Imagine how many undiscovered Waydes or Josia Thugwanes are out there, how many Olympic gold medals we could land next year in Rio if we looked after our local athletes a little better?

Take a look at another of South Africa’s big name ISPs, RSAWEB, and their sponsored team of athletes that competes both locally and internationally. In the past year alone their athletes have found success in SA, Zambia, the UAE and Austria to name a few. They don’t have the big guns getting their name out and about, they have put money into developing grassroots local talent and it has paid off.

We reached out to Rob Gilmour from RSAWEB who had this to say:

From a product perspective RSAWEB offers customers a completely different experience to Telkom. We create technical solutions that help your business succeed online through personal interaction with our team of experts. We have been helping businesses leverage the Internet for 15 years, and rely on our clients Internet strategy succeeding to stay in business. No George Clooney or Usain Bolt to lead our marketing, just the hardest working people we know doing what they love.

We should also consider how genuine the claims made by Telkom with regards their fibre broadband are. Fin24 polled a few users and there were some strongly worded responses:

“Well it’s good they are trying something different and bringing in an international star but what’s the point when the fibre is only in predominantly in white affluent areas in Johannesburg and Cape Town and not in other places”.

“If my understanding of this matter is thus to be correct, a fixed line user in any town with an area larger than 2 square kilometres cannot access the internet close to the speed that they supposedly pay for”.

“They can use Mr Bolt but still today I don’t have an internet connection – always the same story of line capable theft. Telkom is too comfortable. Other ISPs (internet service providers) overtook them while watching.”

I guess we should watch with caution to see which of their promises Telkom can actually deliver on. Anyone who has ever called them up to have a phone line installed and spent weeks waiting can be forgiven for being somewhat sceptical.

[source:fin24]