BT Launches Biggest Ever Promotional Campaign
Communications giant BT Group has announced the launch of its largest ever global business to business marketing campaign in an attempt to underline its position as a global information technology and networking company.
BT claims the mammoth £26 million campaign will position it in the same commercial space as companies like IBM, Accenture and HP, further increasing awareness of its international capabilities amongst senior decision markers and building on the success of several recent contract wins.
The wide-ranging initiative will employ television, print, outdoor media and online sites. It pitches BT as the ideal partner and help companies develop their IT and communications systems to drive business, something the company dubs the ‘digital networked economy’.
Explaining the need for the promotional push, Tim Evans, BT’s group marketing and brand director, said: “BT has undergone a dramatic transformation in the kind of company it is and the services it provides to businesses and governments. The reality of the work we’re doing, however, is ahead of many executives’ ideas about us. We want this campaign to challenge current perceptions of BT and move the company into a different category in their minds.”
The first phase of the campaign will run intensively for five weeks, during which it will replace all other marketing messages for BT in the UK. The second phase will demonstrate the company’s specific capabilities by illustrating its achievements with businesses and governments world-wide. The concept encompasses all of BT’s work in the business-to-business market and has been designed to run for a minimum of three years.
The campaign will be supported by more than 80 customer events across three continents for BT’s target customers. The ads themselves were created by Joseph Khan, the director of music videos for Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child and Eminem, while the graphics for the adverts were created by the same special effects firm responsible for The Matrix and X-Men 2.
BT’s consumer business in Britain appears to be booming, with the roll out of broadband internet access high on the company’s agenda. BT recently announced that it has signed up more than 3 million high-speed internet customers, and continues to develop networks which can reach those outside broadband’s availability area (see BT Helps Broadband Britain Become A Reality).
Elsewhere, BT’s broadband customers are being targeted in the increasingly fierce budget sector, with Wanadoo, AOL and, most recently, Tesco, entering the market offering sub-£20 packages to woo casual or novice users away from the telecoms giant (see Tesco Enters Cut-Price Broadband Market).
BT: 0207 469 2337 www.btplc.com
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