Page 23 - Sphere No.8 (Mar 2003)

SPHERE
21
TV advertising
campaign begins
in the UK in
January.
Retail agreement
with Dixon
Stores Group
under which The
Link and selected
Dixons stores will
sell 3 brand
products and
services.
Global agreement
with Ericsson to
provide Video
Gateway System,
supporting video
telephony between
personal computers
and 3G mobile
videophones.
Li Ka-shing presents
Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi with
the first Italian H3G
SIM card on Jan. 15,
the first ever 3G
service number in
Italy.
Reuters
announced
as content partner
supplying news and
financial data to
customers of 3.
By February, pre-
registration for 3
services totals 140,000
in Italy while the
number of stores,
including third-party
retailers and
distributors, reaches
1,200.
Italy starts
delivering 3
handsets to VIPs.
UK reveals tariff
plans on Feb. 6.
A “DOG AND BONE” MEANS “PHONE” IN COCKNEY
rhyming slang. But the sight of three attractive models
taking TV sets for “walkies” along London’s Oxford Street left
many observers speechless.
It was all part of 3’s eccentric, tongue-in-cheek promotional
campaign.
“We’re taking a non-traditional approach to the market,” says
3 UK Strategy and Marketing Director Lisa Gernon. “So in the
first phase we used online advertising, viral marketing techniques
– such as short comedy video clips distributed by e-mail – and
what’s called ‘ambient’ marketing activity. The latter included
projecting the 3 branding onto buildings; hiring actors with
tattoos of the 3 logo on their heads to show up at London
nightclubs; putting small TVs running video loops in unlikely
places – including the ‘dog-walkers’ towing small TVs on a lead up
and down Oxford Street.
“At the start of this year we became much more visible,
introducing full mass-market ‘above the line’ advertising with a
high-profile – and well-received – TV and cinema campaign. But
the overarching point of our approach is that 3 is different to the
rest – hence the fresh and irreverent approach.”
“From our research we have a very clear idea of who we’re
targeting and what they will respond to. Different segments of the
market are attracted to different components of the 3G
experience, so we have a number of teams developing differing
propositions which we will be rolling out over the year. There
First UK 3Store
opens in Oxford
Street, London.
2003
A Fox Among the Pigeons