• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, November 29, 2007

From social networking to movie-making, telecom companies pull out all the stops

Even for a business already enmeshed in innovative technologies, the telecommunications industry has taken to online advertising and marketing strategies in impressive fashion. In less than a decade, agencies and executives now refer to banner ads as passé or traditional, and look for ways to make a statement with interactive games and promotions. 

The top four carriers say they will allocate more of their advertising and marketing budgets to online campaigns that cost less to produce and deliver higher returns on investments.

AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Sprint and Verizon spent a combined $534.3 million for online campaigns from January through September 2007, compared to $547 million in 2006 and $257 million in 2005, according to Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance.

Today’s efforts are anything but typical. The campaigns are innovative and unusual, and all offer an interactive experience and look to make the connection with consumers to build brand loyalty.

Building DNA

In a departure from the ordinary, AT&T Wireless developed a Web site where consumers can go to answer about a dozen questions about likes and dislikes to build their “DNA strand.” The campaign, launched in September, aims to tightly connect 13- to 24-year-olds with the AT&T brand, says Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, AT&T executive director of national marketing. “It’s a soft-sell strategy to build a relationship with consumers,” he says. “The campaign pulls, not pushes, consumers to the brand in a non-intrusive way.”

A little reminiscent of Tinker Bell flying across Cinderella’s castle at Disney World, the Web site opens to a flickering light changing from orange to blue. Ominous music plays. The branding message in white type appears against a black screen: “Some people just dig technology. They’re the type that live on the Web and always have the latest cell phone. Others keep it old school. Which kind are you?”

Consumers sign up for free. Making the journey means clicking on the gray blocks in the middle of the screen. Each represents a new multiple-choice question requiring an answer, such as “How do you feel about live concerts?” or “How do you keep your friends up-to-date?” Digital fingerprints are created from the consumer’s likes and dislikes. Colors and shapes, such as favorite football team or musical group, symbolize answers to questions.

Ringtones and games are available once the DNA strand is complete, “but the main purpose of the site is to create an interesting world for young consumers who might be transitioning from Cingular to the AT&T brand,” Van Rensselaer says. Consumers can share the strand with friends, or post it to their MySpace pages. Van Rensselaer believes the campaign will turn viral as young consumers compare and share strands. He says AT&T will measure the campaign’s success through tracking studies and click-throughs, as well as increasing “what we call ARPU, average revenue per user,” among the target youth.

Plans are in the works for the second phase of the campaign, which will allow consumers to build and share the DNA strands from their cellular phones. “We’ll introduce it in the next phase,” Van Rensselaer says. “In the future, you’ll have an option to communicate and share the strand with your friend wirelessly.”

Crossing the Line

In April, Sprint Nextel launched a social network site aimed at connecting mothers. The site, co-sponsored by Suave, signifies a break from more traditional online marketing and advertising. It allowed moms to submit real-life story ideas. Some were turned into five-minute movies made available to download as Webisodes, or as mobisodes onto cellular phones.

The inthemotherhood.com campaign fills a niche for moms, an underserved demographic, according to Ted Moon, director of digital marketing at Sprint Nextel. “The site features a platform for self-expression,” he says. “It’s a forum for mothers to interact and share stories and ideas to learn from each other.”

For five weeks, the advisory council posted one or two story lines, such as “life of a real-life mother,” on the site. Mothers submitted stories and then voted, along with their peers, for the best three each week. Mindshare Entertainment produced the spots and turned the winning scripts into clips. Actresses Leah Remini, Chelsea Handler and Eileen Galindo were recruited for the digital shorts to give them a professional look.

The grand prize for the final week went to “Lipstick Story” by Marion (alias: pinky72) from New Jersey, who wrote about a dinner out with her husband. She embarrassed herself at a downtown restaurant with red lipstick smeared across her lips after thinking she grabbed clear Chap Stick instead. As part of the prize package, the story was incorporated into the final “In the Motherhood” script, which ties together several scenes.

In the short, Heather, a divorced working mom played by Handler, hurries to get ready for a last-minute date. Similar to Marion, she puts on the red lipstick rather than the clear balm, smearing it across her lips and face. 

Tied into the episode, Kimmie, played by Leah Remini, finds herself dressed in a blue paper gown in an examination room waiting for the doctor, with her two-and-half-year-old daughter in tow. When the doctor walks into the waiting room, Kimmie discovers the doctor is her childhood sweetheart she’d not seen since he climbed out her bedroom window years ago.

Other prizes included a Sprint mobile phone, valued at $299, and Suave gift pack, valued at $250. A consultation with a Suave stylist, valued at $200, was awarded at the end of each round to one writer who rated the highest-ranking scene.

Last summer, Sprint began a marketing campaign playing off the brand position that cutting out the time it takes to do everyday things, such as peeling a potato, removing a shirt and tying a shoe, gives subscribers more time to talk on the phone.

The information on the site, meant to “turn tedious tasks into fleeting moments,” aims to give Sprint subscribers the ability to “fast-forward through the boring parts of life.” For example, the time rebate on reducing the minutes it takes to pop off a bottle cap saves “four days of your life,” according to a time calculation on waitless.org.