The new Telecom

John Drinnan in the Herald looks at the new Telecom:

Telecommunications industry watchdog Ernie Newman likes the new, higher profile. He was especially impressed by a newspaper advertisement apologising to customers for disruptions to the broadband service Yahoo!Xtra in downtown Auckland on Friday night. It featured a signed photograph of Reynolds.

Yes a good move.

Telecom advertising had been as pervasive as ever but it had kept a low corporate profile since the Telecommunications Act 2006 when an overwhelming majority of MPs came down on Telecom.

“They hit Telecom hard and it really did not want to stick its head up very much.

“It had to retrench a little and show some humility. Before 2006 they were totally focused on the message and its marketing implications and honesty and integrity got lost in that.

“Paul Reynolds is a very good frontman who seriously believes in what he was doing and he is a very good look for Telecom.”

In fact it is almost impossible to find someone who will say a bad word about Reynolds. A rare feat in and industry or company, let alone the CEO of Telecom.