• by Larissa Faw , September 15, 2014

In 2006, Windstream Communications had to find a marketing strategy. The provider of enterprise and consumer broadband had just been spun-off from Alltel and knew it had a good strong business opportunity. Yet, the company realized it couldn't compete with the major cable and telecommunications companies for clients.

Hence, Windstream decided to focus on the mid-sized enterprise space, leaving the bigger companies to the larger players. Since then, under the tagline 'smart solutions, personalized service', Windstream has positioned itself to look more like a small company, a trusted advisor to its enterprise customers.

Now, the company is launching its new “Locally Crafted” campaign to reinforce this strategy. This eight-video content series - hosted by Tumblr and curated by Windstream – is dedicated to highlighting unique entrepreneurs, sharing their stories, and giving them a grander stage which may help in driving more business for them. 

This is the first content series MDC Partners' kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners (KBS) has created for Windstream. The Media Kitchen, a division of KBS+ has worked with Windstream for more than seven years. However, the division has only been handling creative duties for the past year. The Armoury, another division of KBS+, directed and produced the films.

One video profiles artisan cheese maker Ed Puterbaugh of Lexington, Kentucky, who oversees Boone Creek Creamery. His story conveys the same message that Windstream itself tries to convey: the importance of paying attention to detail, how every product is different, and how the tools one selects are critical to the end product. Here's a link to the video.

Windstream purposely left branding to a minimum, wanting the stories to be about people, not products, and create positive sentiments for both the communities and Windstream. Actual sales pitches or product propositions are instead left to other marketing communications.

Of the four videos released thus far, “Restore A Muscle Car” has performed the best, numbers-wise, report company executives. Interestingly, it’s done especially well on YouTube, whereas another video, Porridge Papers, which has a subject matter that is a bit more on the artistic side, has done
better on Tumblr with more than 3,000 likes/reblogs vs. roughly 700 for Restore A Muscle Car.

This series will have placement both online and offline, with the company planning to host live events later this year. 

Meanwhile, Windstream, with annual revenues of about $6 billion, is also deploying more basic marketing tactics, such as advertising in the Wall Street Journal and business trade journals, to raise its profile among decision-makers.