Since Wind Mobile launched in Toronto last December, its advertising has focused on brand positioning – messages about its contract-free services and unlimited calling that the brand really wanted to ‘hammer home,’ says Will Novosedlik VP, brand & communications, Wind Mobile.
And while Wind is still in launch mode in Edmonton and Ottawa, where it debuted last month, a new national campaign, ‘Everybody Winds,’ is promotion-based in an effort to inspire consumers to make the switch.
With creative developed by Toronto’s Clean Sheet Communications and media bought by Starcom MediaVest Group in Toronto, the ads will run in daily newspapers in all four cities, including Vancouver, where Wind is set to launch before summer. ‘Everybody Winds’ is also heavily invested in online paid media such as page banners and page takeovers, as well as digital in-store messaging and social media posts.
‘You’re going to see a mix of brand positioning messaging and some very tactical stuff like what’s out there right now. The offers and promotions are acquisition initiatives – it’s all based on getting subscribers in,’ Novosedlik tells MiC.
Getting subscribers to leave ‘the big three’ is one thing, but attracting them to a particular new company has become more difficult since new players like Public Mobile launched in Quebec and Ontario. Another wireless co, Mobilicity, is set to launch this summer.
‘It’s just going to create more pressure for everybody, including ourselves,’ Novosedlik explains. ‘Has it changed our approach? I would say no. I would say it’s made us a little more careful about where we want to put the emphasis in terms of messaging, what particular offers we want to put out there as pre-emptive strikes against what we expect to see from those guys.’
In addition to the special-offer promotion, which will run all month, Wind’s ‘Monumental Change’ spot is also running on national, conventional television. The spot, which debuted as web-only, pokes fun at the idea of people being brave enough to change wireless companies.
