A 'Newer York' State of Mind
Time Warner Cable's Local Ad Push Fires Back at Verizon's FiOS
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 9/14/2008 3:36:00 PM
Time Warner Cable today launches a high-visibility outdoor ad campaign in New York City, emphasizing services such as high-definition movies on-demand, the “Start Over” on-demand service and “Powerboost”-enhanced high-speed Internet to combat emerging competition from Verizon's FiOS TV and Internet offerings.
Taglines use the theme of “Newer York” and are aimed not just at consumers but at “influencers,” mostly in Manhattan, where Time Warner is the incumbent cable operator (as it is in the borough of Staten Island and portions of Brooklyn and Queens).
“It's trying to really counter the notion that FiOS and a network are going to somehow trump the things we do” in the Big Apple, said chief marketing officer Sam Howe. “This is our town, has been our town, and we have innovations — some are here and some are coming.”
The images, from ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, will be visible on taxi tops and other poster sites, and wrapped around copies of The New York Times that will be handed out at Grand Central Terminal and in Times Square, Howe said.
Verizon Communications, which in July obtained permission to offer FiOS TV as well as Internet in the five boroughs, already has outdoor ads for FiOS in New York City using the tagline “Time's Up, Time Warner.”
TWC has been attacking FiOS in ads, but mostly on TV. This use of outdoor advertising in a big way “is a first for us,” Howe said.
The ads are bright orange with white-lettered copy. A tagline touting Start Over — which lets a viewer come into a program that's already begun and restart it — reads: “In Newer York, your 10:00 news starts at 10:37.”
One promoting HD on Demand reads, “In Newer York, you can host your own film festival.”
And one pushing Road Runner with Power Boost reads: “In Newer York, your speed bursts aren't just for yellow lights.”
Howe said the campaign will run for two months.
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