FTTH Con: Verizon FiOS ads keep it simple

LAS VEGAS--In its marketing campaign to attract consumers to its fiber-to-the-premises triple-play service, Verizon Communications is employing the “KISS” principal: keep it simple, stupid.

Though Verizon has a host of new and innovative applications planned for its FiOS service--from photo and music storage to interactivity that allows consumers to check the weather in a corner of their screen while they watch television--the company knows that too many bells and whistles could confuse consumers.

In surveys conducted by Verizon, Chief Marketing Officer Bob Ingalls told a crowd at the Fiber-to-the-Home Conference in Las Vegas Wednesday, consumers kept beginning their sentences with the same phrase: “All I want is…”

To echo that sentiment, Verizon made that phrase the centerpiece of its FiOS ads.

A print ad reads, “All I want is a picture without the blips, glitches and fuzzies.”

In a TV ad, a woman says, “All I want is phone, TV and Internet from a company I actually like.”

Then a man says, “All I want is a great price.”

The TV ad, which also describes Time Warner Cable by name as a provider of inferior service, suggests FiOS as a simple way for consumers to pay for three services, “all on one bill, for about $95 a month.” Verizon began airing the ads in July in virtually all of its major markets, including those in which Verizon does not offer FiOS but offers video through its satellite partner, DirecTV.

The ad ends with the woman saying, “All I want is to kiss cable goodbye.”