Vodafone has launched a new prepaid mobile offering for the youth market, Vodafone Mates, claiming it gives customers more control and flexibility over how they use their smartphones than current offerings.
Vodafone Mates will also offer a range of rewards and experiences, including a 500MB data bonus every time customers under 25 top up $20 or more on the service.
Customers can choose monthly data quotas from 100MB to 2GB, monthly call minutes from 50 to 350 (to standard Australian and New Zealand numbers only) and monthly text from 50 to unlimited, in any combination. Prices range from $11 per month for the lowest combination to $49 for the highest. The options can be selected via the Vodafone app for each renewal period.
Vodafone’s Australian counterpart has a similar scheme, MyMix, with fewer choices but with the option of adding international calls and a range of expiry periods. Computerworld’s quick comparison of one sample combination suggested prices are similar.
According to Vodafone, “Everything about Vodafone Mates will be youth-orientated, engaging with teens and young adults through innovative products and imaginative real-life experiences that celebrate kiwi mateship.” Vodafone has even co-opted Twitter hashtag #gottalovemates for the service.
The service is being launched with a marketing gimmick designed to exemplify ‘mateship’: “A search to find someone prepared to maroon themselves on a barge in the Auckland Harbour for a week in August, so three of their friends can party it up on a tropical island in Fiji.”