Direct marketing takes to the skies with Storm

Issued by Text 100 for storm
Johannesburg, 28 Nov 2002

Based on the overwhelming success of last year's airport road shows, Storm, a cost-effective provider of telecommunications and Internet solutions, has completed its second round of national direct marketing promotions in domestic departure lounges throughout SA. The promotions were strategically timed to run during the Tel.Com show to maximise the audience reach of key industry players and customers coming to the premier annual telecommunications show.

The promotions focused on handing out Storm's communication products such as Storm International calling cards preloaded with R30 worth of airtime (which were then activated using Storm SMS) and a one month free Internet dial up service loaded onto a mini disc. This enabled Storm to demonstrate its voice and data services simultaneously to the correct target market.

Anne Hoemberg, marketing manager at Storm, says: "The promotions we conducted last year went really well. We identified 800 potential leads with 80% being key decision-makers. We have closed well over 60 deals in the last 12 months and managed to raise our profile in a targeted environment, which includes some of SA's largest businesses. Our return on investment has been a fantastic."

When discussing how the idea came about, Hoemberg comments: "We were faced with the challenge of having to demonstrate an intangible product to a very specific audience - namely business decision-makers. Creating a mechanism which we were able to give-away to our target audience was the natural answer."

After looking at where and how Storm could interact with its target market while demonstrating the company's products without being invasive, it was decided that domestic business lounges were an ideal location to use the latest technology. "Business travellers fit the target market and as we were approaching them while they are waiting for a plane, the promotion was viewed as a welcome interruption, rather that a frustrating intrusion," concludes Hoemberg.

Storm

Storm is the South African retail brand for STWS, a leading low-cost voice and data service provider for the African market. Focusing exclusively on the needs of business users, storm was launched in Cape Town in June 1999. Storm's goal is to challenge the major players in the telecoms market by consistently providing innovative voice and data products and services that help companies to communicate more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Storm currently provides over 4 000 South African businesses with a range of high quality voice and data communication services including storm international, storm cellular, storm access, storm fax and storm sms. Storm international lowers the cost of a business's international calls through its latest callback technology. Storm cellular and storm fax reduce the cost of calls to cellular phones and the sending of faxes. With STWS's acquisition of ITI's ISP business in 2000, Storm offers Internet connectivity, which includes domain name registration, Web site design and server hosting services. Furthermore, Storm is positioning itself to offer converged voice and data services on one network, once deregulation of the local telecommunications market takes place.

Owning and managing its own network, Storm will continue to differentiate itself in the South African market by providing value-added services such as its newly launched Customer Zone and VOIP (once legalised).