Cell C boss 'has no daddy issues'

Alan Knott-Craig does not have "daddy" issues nor does he want to be remembered as a king of sexed-up adverts.

When he was chief executive of Vodacom the network provider came up with a "Who's your daddy?" advert.

When Knott-Craig, joined Cell C as chief executive he replaced Cell C's marketing strategy, centred on humour by comedian Trevor Noah's, with "Papa's got a brand new contract".

Knott-Craig said: "I have daddy issues? No, I don't have daddy issues. I have never thought about that (the daddy links between the two adverts)."

Knott-Craig said Noah was simply replaced because he had left the country and he was not available anymore.

He said the company did not have any immediate plans for Noah.

Knott-Craig revealed that he spends a big chunk of his time creating ads for Cell C.

"I spend almost 80% of my time creating the ads. So if there is a bad ad, it is my fault and if there is a good ad, it is also my fault," he said.

He said the company's advertising strategy and lower tariffs structure was aimed at people aged between 17 and 25 since those customers have a potential to rise up the ladder in life.

He said Cell C's reduction of local tariffs to 99c a minute had captured more than a million new customers who use their SIM cards regularly.

But the reduction of international tariffs also to 99c was capturing an older market segment aged between 35 and 50.

"These are top end customers who are also attracted to our lower data prices," said Knott-Craig.

"However, the number of young people we have attracted to our products is more than a million while the number of the older people runs in the thousands," he said.

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