Snow lies over all the nets
Telecom marketing How to thank customers and win new ones? The festive campaigns of telecom providers.
Telecom marketing How to thank customers and win new ones? The festive campaigns of telecom providers.
As the days get shorter, people seem to be moving closer together. But that doesn't mean they become more communicative. Although telephone networks generally achieve higher call duration in the winter months, there is still no peak in December. Especially not on landline networks. The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) also notes a trend towards substitution by mobile networks. It is true that the total duration of all calls has increased by around 20 percent since the liberalization of the Swiss telecom market in 1998. However, the fixed networks have only contributed a third of this development.popular childhood memories
The opposite is true for cell phone connections: In just three years, mobile phone providers have turned the one-million deficit to fixed-line networks in 1999 into a lead of almost two million. And this despite a significant price reduction in fixed-line telephony of a good 31 index points in the same period and the strong growth in Internet services. Nevertheless, according to Demoscope, the leader Swisscom Fixnet (around 62%) and the other two heavyweights Sunrise (17%) and Tele2 (10%) have succeeded in increasing their shares of the stagnating market. Thanks to continuous advertising pressure, among other things.
Patrizio Pivirotto, project manager at Swisscom Fixnet, is using the "Christmas magic" campaign from the in-house agency Contexta to defend these shares and not so much to boost the market as in the summer free promotion. The comprehensive Christmas promotion is all about an "image-boosting thank you from which private customers can benefit". In addition to free calls on Christmas Day and a discount in Swisscom stores, there is also a lot to be won this year - if you sign up.
Contexta wants to top the success of last year's Christmas campaign - which won an Edi Award - with a heart-warming commercial, at least on a creative level. To achieve this, the agency once again drew on its full resources. No image was too kitschy, no animal too cute and no starry sky too sparkling to appear in the story about the Christmas fairy and her magic wand, according to Rolf Hunziker from Contexta.
"
No US advertising figure
"An advertising world overloaded with emotion that only achieves its goal at Christmas time, as exemplified by Coca-Cola with its truck and Santa Claus," continues Hunziker. With the slight difference that it is not an Americanized advertising figure who plops down the chimneys, but a Christmas apparition, also strange for advertising purposes, who enchants house after house in a snow-covered village in "fairytale Switzerland" with wondrous Swisscom Christmas sparkle.
With similarly traditional motifs, the Orange agency Lowe sends its Santa Claus on his way to promote the Christmas campaign of the limited-time "super price plans".
Wirz did not want to tread in the same snowy tracks with its fourth Sunrise campaign for 2003. CD Thomas Kurzmeyer describes the advertising idea as "refreshingly un-Christmasy": "Sunrise Festnetz is not making a name for itself with cherubs or Santas, but with a hard-hitting discount." The second-largest telecom provider, which announced impressive sales growth in the third quarter, automatically grants all landline customers a discount on the country with which they have made the most calls in the past month - up to 60 percent depending on the destination.
More abroad at home
The campaign alludes to the price reduction on several levels: From mid-December, the reduced message "more abroad" will be staged with eleven different poster subjects using people on the phone. In a cliché-like manner and wearing oversized T-shirts, they reveal themselves as ardent supporters of a specific country. The media tactics are more creative: Small-format advertisements were booked in the newspapers of foreigners living in Switzerland, such as Hürriyet, Tachles or Corriere degli Italiani, Kurzmeyer lists some of the otherwise rarely used media for Swiss campaigns.
Price rounds for advertising campaignsThe latest telecommunications statistics from OFCOM show that since market liberalization, price reductions for mobile (-25%) and national calls (-30%) have been significantly lower than for international calls (-75%).
Although, according to the study, the price war for market share in the
As the fixed-line network is slowly on the wane, all changes, no matter how small, are strategically distributed throughout the year in order to keep visibility high. (la)
No picture too kitschy, no animal too cute, no starry sky too sparkling: Contexta for Swisscom Fixnet.
"Refreshingly un-Christmasy": Wirz for Sunrise.
Santa Claus brings it: Lowe for Orange.
Luca Aloisi
As the days get shorter, people seem to be moving closer together. But that doesn't mean they become more communicative. Although telephone networks generally achieve higher call duration in the winter months, there is still no peak in December. Especially not on landline networks. The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) also notes a trend towards substitution by mobile networks. It is true that the total duration of all calls has increased by around 20 percent since the liberalization of the Swiss telecom market in 1998. However, the fixed networks have only contributed a third of this development.popular childhood memories
The opposite is true for cell phone connections: In just three years, mobile phone providers have turned the one-million deficit to fixed-line networks in 1999 into a lead of almost two million. And this despite a significant price reduction in fixed-line telephony of a good 31 index points in the same period and the strong growth in Internet services. Nevertheless, according to Demoscope, the leader Swisscom Fixnet (around 62%) and the other two heavyweights Sunrise (17%) and Tele2 (10%) have succeeded in increasing their shares of the stagnating market. Thanks to continuous advertising pressure, among other things.
Patrizio Pivirotto, project manager at Swisscom Fixnet, is using the "Christmas magic" campaign from the in-house agency Contexta to defend these shares and not so much to boost the market as in the summer free promotion. The comprehensive Christmas promotion is all about an "image-boosting thank you from which private customers can benefit". In addition to free calls on Christmas Day and a discount in Swisscom stores, there is also a lot to be won this year - if you sign up.
Contexta wants to top the success of last year's Christmas campaign - which won an Edi Award - with a heart-warming commercial, at least on a creative level. To achieve this, the agency once again drew on its full resources. No image was too kitschy, no animal too cute and no starry sky too sparkling to appear in the story about the Christmas fairy and her magic wand, according to Rolf Hunziker from Contexta.
"
No US advertising figure
"An advertising world overloaded with emotion that only achieves its goal at Christmas time, as exemplified by Coca-Cola with its truck and Santa Claus," continues Hunziker. With the slight difference that it is not an Americanized advertising figure who plops down the chimneys, but a Christmas apparition, also strange for advertising purposes, who enchants house after house in a snow-covered village in "fairytale Switzerland" with wondrous Swisscom Christmas sparkle.
With similarly traditional motifs, the Orange agency Lowe sends its Santa Claus on his way to promote the Christmas campaign of the limited-time "super price plans".
Wirz did not want to tread in the same snowy tracks with its fourth Sunrise campaign for 2003. CD Thomas Kurzmeyer describes the advertising idea as "refreshingly un-Christmasy": "Sunrise Festnetz is not making a name for itself with cherubs or Santas, but with a hard-hitting discount." The second-largest telecom provider, which announced impressive sales growth in the third quarter, automatically grants all landline customers a discount on the country with which they have made the most calls in the past month - up to 60 percent depending on the destination.
More abroad at home
The campaign alludes to the price reduction on several levels: From mid-December, the reduced message "more abroad" will be staged with eleven different poster subjects using people on the phone. In a cliché-like manner and wearing oversized T-shirts, they reveal themselves as ardent supporters of a specific country. The media tactics are more creative: Small-format advertisements were booked in the newspapers of foreigners living in Switzerland, such as Hürriyet, Tachles or Corriere degli Italiani, Kurzmeyer lists some of the otherwise rarely used media for Swiss campaigns.
Price rounds for advertising campaignsThe latest telecommunications statistics from OFCOM show that since market liberalization, price reductions for mobile (-25%) and national calls (-30%) have been significantly lower than for international calls (-75%).
Although, according to the study, the price war for market share in the
As the fixed-line network is slowly on the wane, all changes, no matter how small, are strategically distributed throughout the year in order to keep visibility high. (la)
No picture too kitschy, no animal too cute, no starry sky too sparkling: Contexta for Swisscom Fixnet.
"Refreshingly un-Christmasy": Wirz for Sunrise.
Santa Claus brings it: Lowe for Orange.
Luca Aloisi
