Vodafone Australia launches ‘comeback’ campaign with Howatson and Ali Wong
Ali Wong helps Vodafone "show up differently" in new brand campaign
Vodafone Australia is mounting a “comeback”, tapping US comedian and Beef star Ali Wong to front a new campaign aimed at re-establishing the telco as a serious challenger post-TPG merger.
Unveiled today, the multi-channel campaign sets Wong against two distinctly Australian backdrops, delivering a simple message from Vodafone: don’t pay for what you don’t need.
The campaign marks the first major brand work following a shake-up within TPG’s marketing team, with Rebecca Darley joining from Domain Group as CMO at the end of 2024, and Howatson and Co picking up the creative account after a subsequent pitch.
“This is a comeback, not just a marketing refresh,” Darley said.
“We’ve done the hard work to rebuild the fundamentals of the business—improving coverage, simplifying offers, and restoring trust. Now we’re ready to show up differently. Vodafone has always been at its best when it challenges the category, and this campaign is a clear signal that we’re back: confident, competitive, and focused on what customers actually need.”
According to a press release from Howatson and Company, the campaign aims to highlight Vodafone’s network expansion, which now covers over one million square kilometres and 98.5% of the Australian population.
The main message, voiced by Wong, centres on value for money and ensuring customers pay only for what they need.
“I don’t know what the hell this is, but I do know it can’t use a phone,” says Wong in a desert next to an emu during the 30-second commercial. “Another big telco spends millions building towers out here and charges customers for it. Vodafone doesn’t—because clearly nothing’s out here except massive chickens.”
The ad then pivots to Wong standing in front of a standard Aussie weekend BBQ: “Instead, Vodafone doubled their network, which now covers where 98% of you actually live. Genius.”
Overseen by media agency Starcom, the campaign will roll out nationally across film, online video, social, and out-of-home, reinforcing Vodafone’s distinctive, challenger-brand voice.
The campaign comes as Vodafone Australia’s parent company, TPG, boosts its marketing investment across the group, spending $164 million last year, a 32 percent increase on the previous year’s advertising and promotion spend.
The ASX-listed telco has been undertaking a major transformation across its multiple brands—including iiNet and Felix—since the 2020 acquisition of Vodafone Australia, which aims to establish the brand as “a full-service national provider.”
Campaign credits
TPG Telecom
Group Chief Marketing Officer: Bec Darley
Head of Brand and Marketing: Lisa Cronin
Head of Brand and Partnerships, Devices: Krista Blythe
Brand Manager: Laura Mura
Howatson and Company
Chief Executive Officer + Founder: Chris Howatson
Chief Client Officer: Katherine Chen
Group Business Director: Louise Brugman
Senior Business Director: Juliet Loneragan
Executive Strategy Director: Katharina Vassar
Chief Creative Officer: Gavin Chimes
Deputy Chief Creative Officer: Richard Shaw
Senior Art Director: Jack Close
Senior Copywriter: Zak Hawkins
Chief Design Officer: Ellena Mills-Stainer
Head of Design: Trent Michael
Designer: Harry Chambers
Studio Lead: Simon Merrifield
Head of Production: Holly Alexander
Head of Music and Sound: Shane Vancuylenberg
Production – Caviar LA
Managing Director: Michael Sagol
Executive Producer: Tova Dann
Director: Neal Brennan
Producer: Dave Bernstein
Director of Photography (DOP): Janusz Kaminski
Production Designer: Max Orgell
Media
Starcom
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What a tone deaf ad, there’s plenty of people “out here” who use, need and deserve access to telecommunications. The “nothing out here” is where your food is grown. The fighting we have to do just to get basic access to phone & internet service is constant. Vodafone clearly don’t care and would prefer to write us off and flip the bird at us at the same time.
Absolute shocker of an ad, in this climate having an American shouting at an Australian audience that there’s “nothing out here” in our regional and remote areas is a joke and completely misses the mark.
This is an offensive take, if as a company you just want to service densely populated areas justifying it by diminishing regional and rural Australia is offensive and insulting. People living in those areas deserve services and are more dependent on reliable telcos for safety, emergencies and to minimise social isolation. It also implies As a company they have no obligation to provide their paying customers with connectivity if the choose to travel beyond their populous locations.
Such a poor taste ad. All very us over here matter and lets not worry about any one who doesn’t live where we do . A real shocker of a message.
Wow, this is awful! Who is Ali Wong?! Missed the mark here with an American person as lead talent. Dislike everything about this ad. All the money they would have spent on talent fees and making this too – what a waste!
Red dress, red eski, red shirt.
Ranting yank gnorantly dissing the outback. Odd choice.
Its too real life to be funny.
Is it wrong to barrack for the emu?
were there any australians leading the strategy and creative of this campaign? How can you exclude people who live and travel through remote areas? It just highlights how bad Vodafone has always been.
I live in a semi-rural area and see this ad when streaming 9Now, making me think it’s usually targetted to city audiences. I understand this ad might somewhat appeal to a person who lives their life without seeing a cow. But what I don’t understand is that I can get Telstra coverage on a customer network like Belong for so much cheaper than Vodafone with its abysmal coverage. The only advantage to going with a city-focussed telco would be that it is significantly cheaper than one that offers the same thing plus the security of coverage of you ever go for a drive. This has turned me off ever considering Vodafone if I moved in to the city.