Verizon Lounge Dangles Prizes For Site Visitors

Attempting to attract consumers to FiOS television and Internet services, Verizon launched an interactive Web site and sweepstakes that will give one lucky grand prize winner the home entertainment center makeover of dreams.

The sweepstakes, available through the Verizon Lounge, awards 20 daily and one weekly winners. Verizon will award one grand prize winner, a $25,000 entertainment system, when the contest concludes on May 31.

Daily and weekly prizes include high-definition televisions, computers, game consoles, and events. One weekly prize sends two to Yankee Stadium to see the New York team battle it out with the Mets on May 16. The package also entitles the winner to hotel accommodations, transportation, dinner, a VIP tour and seats in a plush stadium box for two to watch the baseball game.

Verizon's online marketing director, Chris Anderson, says "the tiered structure gives players multiple ways and opportunities to win," which keeps consumers coming back to the site for more.

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Several marketing goals went into designing the site. The carrier wanted to build stronger ties with entertainment and media companies, design an entertaining environment to demonstrate offerings available through FiOS and Direct TV and create an opt-in e-mail list to keep consumers updated on services and events.

Players enter their e-mail addresses on the picture of the TV screen to bypass the marketing information and head straight to the sweepstakes. Clicking on one of three bars to see the pop-up icon starts the action. Match three and win instantly. Verizon also has added a chance to lounge around the site and watch movie trailers and TV series episodes by clicking on the film reel, movie camera and director's slate icons.

Designed as a virtual living room, the Verizon Lounge features sneak peeks of new episodes from hit TV series and upcoming movies, and allows visitors to play daily sweepstakes focused on pop-culture trivia. The promotion kicked off this week, dangling a Sharp Aquos 52-inch LCD TV.

Anderson declines to spill the beans on most daily and weekly winnings but says Verizon will give away Microsoft's Xbox 360 and five games as its weekly giveaway next week. Weekly prizes are valued at between $500 and $3,000. Some will include VIP packages to national shows and events, to late-night TV or family entertainment shows and sporting events such as the Yankees vs. Mets baseball game.

The company will have marketed FiOS to about nine million homes in 2008, and it should start to lose less money from investments by the end of this year, says Peter Rhamey, telecommunications equity analyst at BMO Capital Markets. "Having an online component creates a buzz because every time they move into a new territory people don't know what they do," he says. "In previous market launches they were hands on, door to door, which isn't as successful when you get bigger. It gets pretty expensive."

Marketing material on the site highlights Verizon's broadband and entertainment services for consumers and small businesses, including high-speed Internet service supported by digital subscriber line technology to deliver up to 7 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds. The company also offers high-speed FiOS Internet service, with download speeds up to 50 Mbps and upload speeds up to 20 Mbps available in select areas.

U.S consumers want more zip and faster Internet speeds, as they consume more online video, play more video games and generally do more things that eat bandwidth, according to eMarketer. "The next phase of broadband competition will be a marketing-led strategy rather than a technology-led strategy," wrote eMarketer analyst Ben Macklin in a research note. "Marketing a bundle of broadband services for $100 to $150 per month will not be good enough."

Video fans can tune into FiOS TV Premier package that offers 200 digital and more than 30 high-definition channels in most markets, and access to more than 10,000 on-demand titles, of which 60% are free. Verizon expects to have 150 HD channels by year's end.

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