Choosing interactive to carry a new branding message
Verizon tapped interactive agency Questus to create and execute technology-driven advertising campaigns to expand Verizon's branding into the entertainment realm, specifically in the sports and music channels. Working with Verizon's super-fast FiOS FTTP DSL technology platform, Questus created interactive platforms and campaigns for the NFL, multiple popular music artists and the Grammy Awards show.
Audience and project challenges: the National Football League
Verizon's first opportunity to showcase its new branding and FiOS broadband capabilities came when the NFL approached Verizon in the fall of 2006. The NFL was seeking to expand access to NFL games across all the major telecommunication outlets. Even if the opportunity was not exclusive, Verizon saw tremendous potential to gain market share within key audience segments. Working with the NFL presented Verizon with a unique opportunity to generate a large number of new subscribers, including the much sought after 18- to 35-year-old male sports fan market.
In a turn of fortune for Verizon, after several weeks, none of the major telecommunications outlets had committed to the NFL project. With the exclusive challenge to launch the first live streaming NFL site as a premier product offering for Verizon and DirectTV customers (and a five week deadline) Verizon and Questus set out to reinvent the way consumers watch football.
The result of the Verizon/Questus NFL partnership is a premier quality, real-time online sports experience. The Verizon NFL exhibits live games and game extras for NFL's evening pro football games. Viewers can follow multiple games at the same time with sound and audio broadcast from the field during the game. The project brings Verizon customers on to the field and into the action. Using six to 10 user-controlled camera angles of the players and the field, Verizon FiOS TV and DirecTV customers can track down and distance figures and progressive play statistics -- all with less than a minute of delay from the field to the customer.
By capitalizing on its FiOS technology, Verizon was able not only to enhance but also fundamentally change the way consumers can experience football. Introducing the NFL interactively to brand enthusiasts and the NFL's most fanatical fans -- fantasy footballers -- Verizon expanded its brand into the sports marketing channel.
By offering consumers immediate service upgrades and access to the Verizon NFL Game Extras, the NFL project creates an acquisition pipeline for new FiOS TV customers. And by enabling customers to experience the NFL in an entirely different, deeper, broader, more consumer-focused way, Verizon aligned with the NFL brand, thereby accurately conveying the NFL in spirit and excitement while expanding its own brand presence on the web.