MSN Launches Anti-AOL Campaign
Seizing on America Online's rate hike last week, Microsoft is throwing $50 million behind ads that encourage users to switch.
Seizing on America Online's rate hike last week, Microsoft is throwing $50 million behind ads that encourage users to switch.
Microsoft Corp.’s MSN is targeting the users of AOL Time Warner’s rival online service with a new advertising campaign, designed to lure away subscribers with promises of savings.
The new effort seizes a window of opportunity opened by AOL Time Warner’s rate hike for its America Online unit, which last Tuesday increased the monthly charge for unlimited Internet access by $1.95, up from the $21.95 it has charged for the previous three years.
Now, with a $50 million ad campaign and promotion, MSN aims to capitalize on the smaller price tag for its online service (it still charges $21.95 a month for access) and additionally, is offering guarantees that the rate will remain unchanged until 2003, for new users and converts.
Additionally, MSN is incentivizing AOL users who switch over to the service with three free months of service.
“Immediately following AOL’s price hike last week, we received thousands of calls from AOL customers looking for an alternative,” said Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of MSN and the Personal Services Business Group at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft. “While we understand the business need to periodically raise rates, we are providing a special offer for those consumers who are looking for a premium service at an attractive price.”
The “switcher” campaign is the first of its sort from MSN, which has run several campaigns to date that focused on building brand awareness for the Web portal/online service. In October, the service debuted a $150 million campaign centering around a series of slow-motion, dreamy television commercials promoting MSN’s features and new Internet Explorer browser.
More about:
Lucy helps organizations leverage knowledge for in... View Tech Talk
TVSquared is the global leader in cross-platform T... View Tech Talk
Grata is a B2B search engine for discovering small... View Tech Talk
Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing ... Download Now
Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. ... Download Now
This report documents the findings of a Fireside c... Download Now
Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touc... Download Now
Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...
View resourceData is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...
View resourceThis report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...
View resourceCustomers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...
View resourceMarketers today need to thoughtfully select visuals that align with their content, boost SEO performance and drive ROI Read More...
View articleHow the sunglasses giant created subconscious brand recall value with music festival-goers through the power of strategic partnerships and experientia...
View articleIn life, as much as on LinkedIn (or Facebook, Twitter, etc.) people and brands who blabber on about themselves become annoying and best avoided, soone...
View articleBuilding trust in your brand is hard enough. Now take a situation where your audience is so cynical of your product offering some of them even call fo...
View articleThere is room for better lead capturing as ABM evolves in a cookieless world Read More...
View articleTop-of-mind action points that will be valuable to challenger brand marketing for the rest of 2021 and 2022 Read More...
View articleOmnichannel marketing presents an opportunity to marketers but requires better use of data Read More...
View articleThe dark horse your business needs to outperform competition and win at search Read More...
View article