Nice article about Nortel's ad campaign in USA Today
Page 6B
Nortel builds brand with soft touch Low-key ads aim
at wide audience
By Greg Farrell
USA TODAY
It's no secret that we're being hit by an ever-increasing barrage of ad messages. By
some estimates, the number of ads we see each day -- from TV spots to billboards to
logos on clothing -- is up from about 300 a generation ago to 3,000 today.
One of the culprits in this ad assault is the business-to-business ad community.
Those companies used to advertise to each other in trade journals and with direct
marketing solicitations, where almost everyone who saw their ads was a potential
customer. Today, because the stock market is no longer just the province of Wall
Street but of Main Street, many companies that used to market only to their
customer bases now feel the need to establish a consumer brand.
Thus, we have costly, well-produced TV ads for Nortel Networks airing on big
events like the World Series and major golf tournaments.
Nortel's TV campaign launched a year ago. The first ad showed a CEO talking to
employees and other stakeholders and breaking into the Beatles song Come
Together.
The latest ad from Nortel, which made its debut on the World Series last October, is
called ''Question.'' It asks viewers, ''What do you want the Internet to be?''
There's no story or dot-com joke in the ad. Instead, it's an anthem, encouraging
viewers to associate Nortel Networks with the power the Internet has brought to
consumers and businesses. The company provides data and phone networking
services.
Although ads like these can't compete with spots from Budweiser for entertainment
value, they are important because they render obscure business-to-business
companies less obscure.
''Nortel's audience is extremely broad,'' says David Lyon, president of Nortel's ad
agency Temerlin McClain. ''Technology is no longer the province of the IS and IT
people alone. We want to include the non-technical audience. Those are analysts,
influencers in government, employees and all the different customer types,
including technical and non-technical people.''
According to Ad Track, USA TODAY's exclusive weekly poll, 9% of those familiar
with the campaign liked it a lot, compared with an average of 22%. Another 45% said
they liked the campaign ''somewhat.'' Only 9% disliked the ads, compared with an
average of 13%.
Those numbers don't bother Nortel. ''We're not going at it from an entertainment
aspect as much as getting the message through to our intended audience,'' says
Milan Bekich, vice president of advertising. ''Our studies show brand awareness
going up dramatically. Our first objective was to position Nortel at the heart of the
Internet. We wanted to turn this from a monologue, a one-way discussion, into a
dialogue.''
At a time when consumers are weary of hearing companies thump their chests,
bragging about how great they are, Nortel is among those taking a softer approach.
''What we're doing is asking you what you want the Internet to be, as opposed to
competitors who focus on their accomplishments,'' Lyon says.
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