Intertainer Inc. plans to help make "broadband" even more of a household word with the launch of its new print ad campaign.
The ads are the company's first move into consumer promotion, although Intertainer has run trade ads in the past.
"Now that we've gone past the initial trial phase and into deployment, we wanted to reach out to consumers," executive vice president of content and marketing Mark Sonnenberg said.
The company has started to roll out its premium content-on-demand service (at
www.Intertainer.tv) through digital subscriber line services in limited markets. Intertainer is also available to some Comcast Corp. digital-cable customers.
A more limited offering is available on its promotional Web site,
www.intertainer.com.
The new ads play with the "and" in "broadband" to tie the potential of the company's on-demand content to popular media titles from the film, television and music worlds: broadbandsuperman, for example.
"Its primary purpose is to communicate-in concrete, easy-to-understand terms-how broadband can change the way consumers view entertainment," Intertainer director of public relations Louise Rasho said.
Sonnenberg said he hopes the ads will help make Intertainer synonymous with broadband entertainment-not just to consumers, but to others that follow advances in the industry, such as advertisers.
The ads were designed with a humanistic element "to appeal to a wider demographic" than early adopters, Sonnenberg said. He hopes that when readers look at the ads, "it starts to crystallize that broadband is fun and it's entertainment," he said.
In addition to movies-on-demand, Intertainer offers television, music, electronic commerce, lifestyle and educational broadband content.
"We're trying to make Intertainer a primary destination for viewers," Sonnenberg said. "Personalization is the way of the world now. We're not a world of three channels any more or even a world of 50 channels."
The first consumer ads are set to debut in January issues of national consumer magazines such as
Vanity Fair, Time Digital
and
Wired, which are expected to hit newsstands next month.
The campaign is likely to run over the next six months. As new Intertainer affiliates launch the service in key markets, the company plans to add local newspapers and magazines to the mix.
Intertainer is not planning to run joint ads with its affiliates in this phase of the consumer campaign. But the ads should help operators by raising visibility of broadband offerings, Sonnenberg said.
