Nortel Networks Marketing Campaign Signals Aggressive Approach To Building A New Brand
Beatles song ''Come Together'' Underscores Company's Real World
Commitment to Bringing Telephony, Video, Data, and Wireless Together with
the Internet.
TORONTO, Canada, March 12 /PRNewswire/ - Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT/TSE) today unveiled an integrated global marketing campaign including a major advertising thrust that significantly increases awareness of the company's leadership position at the heart of the internet revolution with telecommunications as the ''killer application.''
The company also announced this week its intent to change its legal name from Northern Telecom Limited to Nortel Networks Corporation to reflect its leadership as a provider of integrated network solutions - Unified Networks - spanning data and telephony.
In a letter today announcing the campaign to the company's 75,000 employees around the world, John Roth, vice-chairman and CEO of Nortel Networks, said: ''Our goal is to use an aggressive integrated marketing approach to significantly increase awareness of the Nortel Networks brand with customers, employees and investors.''
In his employee letter, Roth said there are three specific reasons why the company is taking a more aggressive approach to market.
First, we are involved in an all-out war on the competitive front where we face competitors who themselves are using marketing muscle to capture mind share and market share,'' Roth explained. ''Second, we need to be more aggressive in establishing Nortel Networks as the leader in working with customers to create a new era of networking that spans data and telephony. And third, we need to reinforce our position as a company at the heart of the Internet revolution - a company committed to working with our customers and partners to build a better Internet.''
Bill Conner, executive-vice president global marketing, said the ''Come Together'' advertising campaign is a major investment on the part of the corporation in building brand awareness for Nortel Networks.
However, advertising is only one element of our integrated marketing strategy,'' said Conner. ''There's no question that in today's industry we're engaged in real-time marketing warfare, and we're going to be competing on every front, including advertising. We're going to be very aggressive in how we fight the competitive battles for mind share, market share and revenue growth.''
Conner said the ''Come Together'' campaign, which features the song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, is a metaphor for Nortel Networks' ability to bring together and ''unify'' disparate networks, including telephony and data, wireless and wireline.
The first ''Come Together'' television ads, developed and produced by Temerlin McClain of Dallas, are scheduled to break today. They will initially appear globally on CNN International, CNBC International, the Bloomberg Global Financial Network, ESPN and ESPN Espagna. In addition, the launch will be seen on several high-profile national network television programs, including ABC's ''Nightline'' and ''20/20,'' CBS' ''60 Minutes,'' ''Chicago Hope'' and ''48 Hours'' and NBC's ''Frasier,'' ''The Sunday Night Movie'' and NBA telecasts. The campaign will also include a significant business, newspaper, and technical print presence globally and can be seen on the Internet via web banners on major news, business, finance, travel and weather web sites.
Sixty- and thirty-second television spots feature the well-known music from The Beatles' popular album, ''Abbey Road,'' against a backdrop of quick-cut visuals that showcase the breadth of Nortel Networks' innovative Unified Networks solutions. Nortel Networks hopes to reach decision-making executives where they work and play with the campaign.
The advertising campaign will continue to build on the ''Come Together'' theme over the next two years. To read and see more about the new ''Come Together'' ad campaign visit Nortel Networks on the World Wide Web at: www.nortelnetworks.com |
