• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, November 28, 2006

Marketers deploy combo tactics to lure and retain customers

With 200 million U.S. subscribers and household penetration already around 70 percent, the wireless industry's marketing challenge is complex. The massive brand campaigns in print and on TV attempt to satisfy carriers' appetites for new subscribers and a bigger market share. But at the same time, operators must guard their rear flanks against deserters. Wireless carriers typically lose 2 percent of their customers per month.

Meanwhile, wireless products and services are becoming commoditized. As voice plan prices decline, carriers must inspire consumers to spend more on data plans for the mobile Web, music, games, and video content. Across most media platforms, the wireless industry remains a top media buyer because "the category is intense," says John Harrobin, vice president, digital media and advertising at Verizon Wireless. "There aren't many categories as competitive as wireless."

Acquisition-oriented marketing continues to drive interactive strategies for all the major carriers, producing tsunamis of banner and search ads online. But the chief marketers at Verizon, Sprint, and Virgin Mobile are also using interactive to fight this war in greater detail, by segmenting the market and upselling customers on products that require better explanation than the relentless "More Bars," "Can You Hear Me Now?," and T-Mobile's "Get More" spots.

Verizon Engages and Educates

The Verizon Wireless MC Ringback microsite (verizonwireless.com/music) attempts to segment the youth market for the second-largest U.S. carrier as it struggles to look cool against more hip alternatives like Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile.

Big V also needs to upsell the market on a new "ringback" technology that customizes the ring specific callers hear when they dial your mobile number. The interactive application walks visitors through a pithy questionnaire about their friends and suggests popular music tracks to assign to each. It emphasizes personalized service and Verizon's music label alliances. "It goes head-to-head with anything Virgin Mobile does," says Harrobin.

Verizon says close to a million customers have used the tool in the past year, but they're not coming from a massive multimedia buy. Targeted banner placements started the traffic flow, then built-in viral distribution among those who tried mc Ringback took over. It's also proved to be a successful sales channel; visitors can buy the ringbacks on the spot.

To attract the business and frequent traveler segment for its VZnavigator GPS mapping application, Verizon used behavioraltargeting networks last summer to locate prospects at online map and business travel sites. Users could click through to an elaborate demonstration of the complex product. Precise targeting resulted in click-through rates five times the standard, and "half of those who went to the site completed the demo," says Harrobin. Harrobin's new war cry, he says, is "Engage and educate."

Sprint Nextel: Leveraging Sponsorship into Sales

Working with fewer resources than larger rivals Verizon and Cingular, Sprint Nextel leverages media sponsorships with NASCAR, the NFL, and movies such as Talladega Nights.

"My team, including the agencies, see ourselves as a bridge, where the sponsorships meet the road in terms of generating sales and leads," says Ted Moon, director of interactive and innovative media for Sprint Nextel. Moon got traction earlier this year in a unique Sprint-sponsored TiVo Showcase of Talladega Nights outtakes and movie extras. He was pleased with the results: TiVo customers spent nearly three minutes with the brand, double a previous trial Showcase.

Sprint campaigns seek to reduce churn and upsell existing customers on a new class of data products such as NFL Mobile. NBC's on-air NFL Sunday night sportscasters review the day's game-changing plays and push viewers to vote at Sprint's "Turning Point Play of the Day" microsite or by text message on Sprint phones. "We really want to bring people to a microsite which has more real estate to get into the Sprint Nextel NFL story," Moon says.

By funneling TV audiences into functions available only on its phones, Sprint gets brand differentiation in a commoditized field and a chance to deepen its relationship with existing customers. The end game is selling customers the NFL Mobile application for their Sprint phones.

"The number of downloads we've had is very encouraging. We exceeded projections for the year in the first five weeks," Moon says.

Virgin Mobile: Sealing the TV Deal

Much smaller than the top-tier providers, and without their stand-alone retail presence, Virgin Mobile relies heavily on getting youth market eyeballs to a Web site that must educate and sell. It devotes 10 to 12 percent of its marketing budget to digital; Bob Stohrer, Virgin's vice president of brand and marketing, is a true believer in the old-plus-new equation. "We know that TV is driving online, and the microsites are driving viral activity out."

Virgin's wildly successful 2004 and 2005 "Chrismahanukwanzah" holiday campaign showed the brand using edgy TV creative to pull consumers online, where microsite content hooked them on the product and service. In 2004, the holiday sendup extended online virally by inviting visitors to the site to send "Chrismahanukwanzah" cards and TV jingles to friends. The passalong activity was "incredible," says Stohrer. Within two weeks there were more than 25,000 Web links to the campaign.

In 2005, Virgin added another old-school media element: an 800 number for a call-in to speak with characters in the TV/Web campaign. Callers spent an average of 2.5 minutes on the line.

This year's holiday campaign plugs into viral, video, and user-generated trends simultaneously. TV ads aimed at parents depict their kids proclaiming them "Bleepin' Awesome" for buying Virgin Mobile. Visitors to a microsite can create their own "Bleepin' Awesome" video contest entry and have it distributed on YouTube.

The winning video will appear on a Times Square digital billboard and on MTV. "We know that the simultaneous [media] consumption metrics go together particularly well with the youth demographic," says Stohrer. "We still believe in the relationship between TV and online."

YouTube may be hot, in other words - but BothTubes are hotter.