• by Aaron Baar , May 15, 2009

Consumers are using their phones for tasks such as email and Web surfing more than ever. AT&T is looking to capitalize on this trend with a new ad campaign, asserting that the carrier is the most popular among smartphone users.

The new campaign, which includes television, print and online advertisements, will leverage research conducted by comScore that shows twice as many smartphone users are AT&T customers. A television spot that broke over the weekend shows a businessman checking his email and sending files from a bus. The bus morphs into a harried workplace.

"The idea it communicates is that twice as many smartphone users have chosen AT&T because with AT&T, they have confidence they can always stay connected to people, to work and to get information," company representative Jenny Bridges tells Marketing Daily.

AT&T has had tremendous success with smartphones. According to the company, nearly one-third of its subscribers use a smartphone. During the first quarter of 2009, the number of AT&T customers with "integrated mobile devices" (i.e., smartphones) hit nearly 41%, more than double the number in the same period a year before.

In addition, the company activated 1.6 million iPhones, for which it is the exclusive provider in the United States. (For now, anyway. AT&T's exclusivity contract ends next year, although the company is reportedly looking to negotiate an extension.)

With growth in data services and smartphone sales expected to continue, AT&T has said more than three-quarters of the nearly $20 billion it expects to spend on capital expenditures this year will be used to support mobility and data services.

"Smartphones are an important category for AT&T," Bridges says. "Nearly a third of postpaid customers use an integrated device, or device with a physical or virtual full keyboard, which includes smartphones."