BT spends millions on broadband marketing

NEWS BT is toasting the success of its multi-million pound project to help ISPs advertise their broadband services. In December 2001 BT Wholesale launched a campaign to support ISP advertising campaigns. It asked broadband ISPs to propose marketing ideas, and co-funded the ones it liked. BT Wholesale's investment in the campaign was in "the low millions", a spokeswoman said. The company reports that 13 per cent of orders in mid-July were directly attributable to these co-funded marketing activities, amounting to around 1,560 customers per week. As a result, 18,500 customers have already been connected and the company expects the figure to reach around 40,000. In investment terms this works out at around £100 per customer acquired, which is still reasonably expensive, according to some media buyers silicon.com spoke to. Typically, a narrowband ISP - offernig a lower value product than broadband - would look to spend around £10 to attract each new customer. A higher-value product, such as a credit card, might see between £60 and £80 spent per customer signed up. However, in defence of BT's strategy, many rival ISPs have offered discounts on their services worth far more than £100 in order to get customers to sign up to broadband. Another campaign of similar value is in the planning stages, the BT spokeswoman said. Its aim will be to foster innovation and it will take the form of a competition. She said: "When we launched the first campaign in December 2001, no one was really advertising broadband and this campaign has started things going. "We're now hoping to get people to promote broadband in different and creative ways." Both campaigns are separate from the sum the company will spend on promoting its registration scheme for rural broadband registration.