Tiscali to ride on tails of BT’s internet TV campaign
Tiscali UK chief executive Mary Turner says she wants her marketing to piggyback rival BT’s ad campaign.
Her comments follow the launch of BT’s biggest ad campaign so far this year, in May, to promote BT Vision. The multi-million pound campaign was created by Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO.
In contrast, Tiscali will use just direct marketing and online activity to promote the rollout of its broadband TV service.
Turner says she hopes the campaign for its Vision TV service will “educate” consumers about internet protocol television (IPTV) and lead to increased subscriber numbers for Tiscali TV.
“I hope BT’s campaign will be successful. It has deep pockets – deep enough to educate the the market,” she says. “To ride on the coat-tails of others’ marketing has always been our strategy. We don’t have the money to educate.”
Tiscali, which bought London-based IPTV service Homechoice last year, will roll out the service this summer. She says at least 40% of homes will be able to access Tiscali TV by September.
However, Tiscali is limited by a marketing budget dwarfed by its rivals, including BSkyB, BT and cable giant Virgin Media.
The cable company spent £20m rebranding from NTL, which is “money wasted”, according to Turner who points to the 300,000 subscribers leaving Virgin Media in the first quarter of 2007.
