We want BigPond, Telstra 'refugees' says Internode

Gordon Peters
Monday, 29 March 2010 13:40

IT Industry - Market

In a direct assault on BigPond and Telstra, national ISP, Internode, has launched an all-out effort to try and tempt what it claims are 'disenfranchised' - or BigPond 'refugees' - away from Telstra over the next three months with an aggressive advertising campaign mimicking Bigpond's own campaigns.

Internode media manager, Tom McQueen, said today it was the company's first major above-the-line advertising campaign in years and was being launched in a bid to attract 'disenchanted Telstra BigPond broadband customers.

According to McQueen, for the next three months, Internode's 'guerrilla-style campaign', featuring a blue Kombi van, will run on 29 billboards in Sydney and 10 in Adelaide to boost the profile of its Internode easy broadband home ADSL service. In a swipe at Bigpond, the Internode's ads will display one of two taglines: 'Are you being taken for a ride?' or 'If you've been everywhere man, it's probably time for an upgrade'.

McQueen said the campaign, developed by Adelaide-based agency JAM and media planner Starcom, is intended to highlight Internode's reputation for 'award-winning customer service and good value, high performance broadband' to thousands of BigPond customers who, he claims, are leaving the telco's broadband service each week.

McQueen said the brief for the agency was to target 'BigPond refugees.' 'We're telling BigPond customers there is somewhere better to go.

'The idea behind these ads is to communicate with BigPond customers in areas where they live and travel, and to make them question the value they get from BigPond. We believe Internode Easy Broadband, our most popular home broadband plan at $49.95 a month, offers far better value than similarly priced BigPond plans.

'BigPond has more than two million broadband customers and it's losing more customers each week than it gains. That represents a significant opportunity for us to expose them to the Internode brand and the value we offer.'