BT Vision to merge with consumer marketing arm
BT is merging its BT Vision marketing team with the consumer marketing team because BT Vision is now an “established” part of its broadband offer.
The integrated team will be overseen by director of consumer marketing Matthew Dearden, who will supervise about 90 staff, with about five staff moving over from BT Vision. The TV on-demand service’s head of customer acquisition, James Soames, is leaving to join 118 118 as director of text marketing.
A BT spokesman says because BT Vision is now an “established” part of its broadband offer, it can now be “marketed by an integrated team along with all other aspects of BT Total Broadband”.
He says the structure of the team is being worked out but the integration of the two will go ahead this month.
BT brought the marketing of its broadband, fixed line phones and devices together under one team last May (MW May 21, 2008). The aim was to improve customer service, and was initiated by Dearden shortly after his appointment to the role last May.
His appointment followed the arrival of John Petter, who joined BT as managing director of BT’s consumer division in April (MW.co.uk April 10, 2008) with the aim of improving customer service.
The telecoms giant launched BT Vision, its broadband-delivered TV service, two years ago and it has about 340,000 users. The company plans to introduce advertising in on-demand programmes this year in order to closely target ads at households (MW July 24, 2008).
It launched a trial of “red-button advertising” with a campaign for Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian last June, the first on the BT Vision platform.
