C&W launches corporate repositioning ad campaign

Cable & Wireless launches its first corporate advertising campaign since the beginning of 2002 today (Wednesday), repositioning itself as a supplier of integrated telephony and Web-related computer services for business users, rather than as just a telecoms company.

A series of six press ads will run until February in The Times and The Sunday Times, as part of a multi-million pound deal between C&W and Times Newspapers, which includes sponsorship and online activities. The ads will also appear in The Scotsman, the Irish Times and the Western Mail.

Creative work for the ads – all with a mountaineering theme – is by J Walter Thompson, which won a four-way pitch for the business, with media buying by Total Media Direct. In August, JWT also won the account for C&W subsidiary Bulldog, which offers broadband to consumers and the small office/home office (SOHO) market.

C&W UK director of marketing and services Mark Quartermaine says: “The ads are all based around the idea of the journey: the idea that we can take you from where you are now to where you need to be.”

Quartermaine adds that the convergence of telecoms, business computing and the internet means that suppliers must be able to run voice, video and data services for business customers, including Web hosting, call centre support and voice over internet protocol telephony.

C&W claims to have about 16 per cent of the integrated telecoms and ICT services market, with BT on about 48 per cent.

The Times deal also involves sponsored Times supplements on ICT topics, website advertising and C&W-sponsored evening sports lectures, hosted by personalities such as ex-England rugby captain Martin Johnson. C&W will also sponsor The Times Power 100 listing of the UK’s most powerful executives.