NTL launches £10m cross-media brand awareness campaign and restructures

NTL is embarking on a &£10m branding push to explain to consumers the benefits of cable as a platform that delivers three services – TV, telephone and Internet – down one line.

Group marketing director Mike Hounsell claims that awareness levels of the NTL brand – built up through advertising and sports sponsorship – are high, especially given that the company has grown through the acquisition of regional cable operators.

But he admits: “I don’t think we have done a good job over the years of promoting cable as a superior platform, offering access to a number of services such as broadband Internet and digital TV.”

To that end, NTL has launched a new division – NTL:home – dedicated to serving consumers, branding for which has been developed by NTL creative director Martin Lambie-Nairn. Designed to push products, the branding uses a line linking images of a phone, computer and TV with the strapline “One line is all you need”.

A new &£5m cross-media campaign employing the new branding and delivering “best value” messages rolls out from October 1.

The 30-second TV ad, created by J Walter Thompson, features a brand spokesman in the form of a spider which takes an indirect swipe at rival British Sky Broadcasting by telling his friend that he does not “dish out” for telephone, digital TV and broadband Internet services separately as they come down one line.

NTL’s vans will also incorporate the new branding.

NTL is to trial a virtual mobile phone network service, through Orange, by the end of the year.