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UK'S
MOST INTENSIVE TV CAMPAIGN TO HELP DOUBLE BROADBAND CONNECTIONS
£10m to be spent on UK's
most intensive TV advertising campaign Aim to double weekly broadband
connections BT Broadband set for early October take-off with £23 million
campaign Average of 90 per cent of BT Broadband's first customers
satisfied with product Carphone Warehouse becomes first High Street
partner to sell BT Broadband
BT will spend £1 million a day on the most intensive TV advertising
campaign ever seen in the UK as part of its drive to double the weekly
take-up of broadband.
A total of £10 million will be spent in 10 days between September 22 and
October 2 to advertise the potential of broadband. The campaign, called
broadband has landed, will also include a specially created on-line game,
using characters from the advertising, which is expected to involve a
record six million people over a three-day period.
The 10 days of blanket TV advertising is a key part of BT's drive to get
one million ADSL broadband connections by summer 2003 and increase the
weekly average from 12,000 to 24,000. It immediately precedes a separate
£23m push to sell BT Broadband, BT Retail's new high-speed, direct-access
internet product, which has recorded satisfaction levels of around 90 per
cent since it was made available in early June. BT Retail aims to have
500,000 customers for the new service by summer 2003.
Pierre Danon, chief executive officer of BT Retail, said:- "BT's
intensive TV campaign is further evidence that broadband is clearly at the
top of our agenda."
"The sheer scale of what we are doing should leave no one in
any doubt of the seriousness of our intent to put broadband at the heart
of BT and be the flag-bearer for the industry in the government's drive to
make Broadband Britain a reality. Developing awareness through marketing
is a very important component of BT Group's broadband strategy and, such
will be the intensity of this campaign, that it will be virtually
impossible to miss the messages it gives about the potential of this
exciting technology and the benefits it brings."
"This campaign, on top of the other initiatives BT Group has
introduced in recent months to kick-start the market, should help provide
all operators supplying broadband in the UK with the launch pad they need
to sell their products and services in unprecedented numbers,"
added Danon.
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Following on from the 10-day
campaign, which seeks to generate awareness of the general benefits of
broadband, BT Retail will formally launch BT Broadband, its new
high-speed, access-only product.
Although available since
early June, BT Broadband will be launched with full fanfare at the
beginning of October with a £23m marketing campaign.
Angus Porter, managing director of BT Retail's consumer division, said:- "When
you consider we have not yet done a scrap of advertising for BT Broadband,
the number of customers already signing-up is excellent, giving us solid
confidence that we will reach the target we have set for next year. Last
week alone, we took 1,700 orders. Previous experience tells us that when
the marketing campaign kicks in, the number of connections will increase
significantly."
"Feedback from
early customers has also helped us refine BT Broadband, in our bid to
provide customers with exceptional service."
"Satisfaction with various aspects of BT Broadband has been
running at an average of 90 per cent, with customers being particularly
happy about the speed of the product (98 per cent satisfied), as well as
the one-stop service in the form of our dedicated contact centre in
Newcastle and the consolidated bill. We are now working to ensure that we
improve the service even further."
Partners will play a key role in helping BT Retail reach its milestone of
half a million BT Broadband connections by next summer. Today, Carphone
Warehouse became BT Retail's first high-street partner in selling BT
Broadband.
Angus Porter said:- "Partnerships are crucial. We are delighted
to have Carphone Warehouse on board. The more solid partnerships we have
with leading companies, the easier will be the task to hit our own target
for BT Broadband and contribute to the Group target of the million
broadband connections by next summer. Carphone Warehouse now joins Sky
Digital, which BT Retail will also be working with to sell BT
Broadband."
"In all elements of our broadband strategy, which aims to raise
new revenue of £681 million a year by 2004/05, partnerships play a
prominent role. We now have 70 content partners for BT Broadband, 40
signed-up for BT clickandbuy and leading companies like HP and Toshiba for
our BT Home Computing offering, which will be launched formally later this
year," added Porter.
(Info. From BT)
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