AT&T Takes The Local Route To Promote U-verse Service

Promotional ice cream trucks have begun cruising through neighborhoods with goodies, popcorn and water, marketing AT&T's U-verse service that now offers new high-definition channels with Filipino, South Asian, and Vietnamese programming.

Beginning Oct. 15, AT&T's TV service, U-verse, will add History Channel HD and Lifetime Movie network HD to its lineup. With these networks, U-verse TV subscribers with HD service have access to more than 30 HD channels.

Creating buzz in local communities, San Antonio, Texas-based AT&T brings in mobile trailers to demonstrate the technology and give consumers the U-verse experience in a living room setting. The trailers have a flat-screen TV showcasing the service. Marketing material also directs residents to local demonstrations and events such as concerts and sponsored movie nights.

Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey sees potential hurdles in getting consumers to adopt U-verse with this strategy. Demonstrations in traveling trailers or electronic retail stores Best Buy and Circuit City enable consumers to view the awesome HD picture quality, but are not designed to educate customers on the long list of items and services they need before achieving the same experience at home, from the service to the equipment.

advertisement

advertisement

U-verse provides other services aside from HD TV, such as Internet access. Later this year, AT&T also plans to offer a voice over Internet protocol service for customers who sign up for U-verse.

Rather than hype HD technology, AT&T needs to attract consumers to U-verse with a service they understand--such as high-speed Internet access, McQuivey says. "As I roll out U-verse into neighborhoods, I would market faster Internet speeds as a benefit because people are more familiar with that service," he says. "Then I would explain the HD quality."

AT&T's U-verse brings fiber technology to the neighborhood, providing faster broadband access for computers, along with high-quality television services. Broadband speeds typically run between 1- and 2- megabits per second, compared with fiber at between 10- and 20-megabits per second.

Rival Verizon offers Fios, which provides similar services. Marketing efforts at the Basking Ridge, N.J. company rely on twentysomethings walking door-to-door through neighborhoods asking residents: "Can we sign you up now?," McQuivey says. "People don't like salespeople to approach them at the door, but it works to have kids showing up to explain that the fiber Internet connection is five times faster than the one they have, and the service also offers high-quality TV."

AT&T's marketing approach aims to put the remote in the customer's hand, claiming that 60% of all U-verse eligible customers who try the service buy it. Those who subscribe to U-verse are sent a monthly entertainment magazine, called U-guide, that keeps subscribers up to date on the latest programming and U-verse features.

Subscribers also receive a monthly member e-newsletter that discusses programming events and features, access to the U-connect member Web site with content like the online video lounge to explore and preview the programming available to them on U-verse TV, and customized direct mail and e-mail marketing pieces that make personalized programming recommendations based on the customer's lifestyle and individual preferences.

Next story loading loading..