Warm fuzzies: PCS operators are answering the call of competition with advertising that makes an emotional tug and builds brand loyalty

Yes, George, your dog Astro has his own phone. Parrots are carrying PCS handsets in New York. A pink humanoid from an unknown galaxy is running rampant in 11 PCS markets. And the spirit of Einstein is hawking wireless phones to Wisconsin cheeseheads.

At least those are some of the advertising ploys PCS operators are using-a far cry from price-based cellular ads that some say have contributed to wireless phones becoming a commodity with which consumers have no emotional bond.

"At least someone's trying to make an attempt to get some type of consistency and get a different type of message out there," says Robert Dotson, vice president of marketing at cellular and PCS carrier Western Wireless. The time is ripe for carriers to abandon ads that have "value today but no value tomorrow," he says.

Early entrant Omnipoint Communications began marketing its New York network with a talking parrot whose mimicking highlights the difference between analog and digital transmissions-a novel tactic that was certainly a harbinger of the wild and woolly advertising to come.

Subsequent approaches represent creative efforts at setting apart digital PCS service and establishing brands-issues that are crucial as wireless becomes more competitive-according to Manoj Agarwal and Yong-Soon Kang, telecom marketing experts at New York's Binghamton University.

"Differentiation becomes critical whenever the number of alternative providers increases-as in the wireless market these days," notes Kang. Both men agree that a PCS carrier's first task should be product category differentiation vis-a-vis cellular carriers, especially analog carriers. "But so far I don't think they have done well in this task," Kang says.

Indeed, advertising from incumbent cellular carriers has complicated that chore. For instance, AT&T Wireless Services just celebrated the one-year anniversary of a controversial marketing campaign that terms its time division multiple access-based cellular and PCS offerings as "Digital PCS." And ads touting digital specialized mobile radio service from Nextel Communications further confuse consumers.

PCS carriers' second crucial task is brand image differentiation, Agarwal and Kang say. "Establishing brand or building brand equity should be the basis of the entire marketing effort," Kang says.

Cosmic comrades Product awareness and branding are goals for one of the newest campaigns unleashed by Sprint PCS. Launched Sept. 24, the campaign includes TV ads that combine animation and live-action footage to place the futuristic Jetson family, including cosmic canine Astro, at RadioShack outlets.

"About 6000 RadioShack stores have been remodeled, so now there is a Sprint store inside those RadioShacks. The Jetsons campaign was designed to introduce that concept to customers and let them know about all the Sprint products that are available," notes Chuck Levine, Sprint PCS chief marketing officer. Sprint PCS' ultimate messages in all its ad campaigns are that the company has a nationwide footprint and the clearest possible sound, he says.

Kang likes the ads for their warm, humorous feeling and the "basic approach of putting a state-of-art technology against the Jetsons." But so much is going on in the ads that the audience could get confused, compromising the overall clarity of the message, he cautions.

"Again, as the competition gets tougher with more carriers, clear distinction of the brand image should be the primary goal in advertising," says Kang.

Sprint also has relationships with a number of other retailers, including Best Buy, May Co. and Circuit City, but have no special ads slated for those outlets. However, Levine notes, "We have a co-op advertising program with all of our retailers, and we will not dictate what advertising that they do. But we will support them in advertising our product."

One example is some special Sprint PCS ads that Nobody Beats the Wiz put together and feature former New York Giants coach Bill Parcells and former Giants quarterback Phil Simms.

Sprint PCS' other retailers are not likely to incorporate the Jetsons into their ads because they would have to go through an expensive, and likely inappropriate, licensing process, Levine adds.

PrimeCo Personal Communications also is using a space-age approach to marketing its code division multiple access network. The company, which owns PCS licenses covering 19 states in 11 major trading areas, launched a campaign July 16 that features an alien character called PrimeCo Pink.

In the ads, the pastel humanoid misplaces his futuristic wireless phone on a trip to earth. Sent back to retrieve the device, the galactic wanderer finds that humans have adopted the prototype for their PrimeCo phones, and he journeys through a series of escapades to reclaim his phone. Like Sprint PCS' Jetsons spots, PrimeCo's ads combine animation and live-action footage.

The decision to use cartoons to represent a high-tech product might seem a bit odd, but animated characters sometimes can be more effective than human spokespeople, Levine says. "They have more credibility than real-life people who sometimes are perceived to have 'sold out' when they promote something," he says.

Similarly, PrimeCo chose its friendly alien specifically for emotional appeal. The campaign met PrimeCo's requirements for being sustainable over the long term and able to highlight brand attributes of a friendly, fun, somewhat irreverent company that is innovative yet simple, according a PrimeCo spokeswoman. "We wanted the advertising to be humorous, because we feel humorous advertising makes people feel good, and we wanted them to feel good about PrimeCo," she says.

PrimeCo's approach is in line with research that shows buyers are increasingly bewildered by the plethora of product choices, leading consumers to seek lucid, uncomplicated advertising messages that they can trust.

"Confusion is a common reaction to high-tech products," notes Kang. "And the intangibility of services further confuses the consumers." He and Agarwal applaud the idea of simplified or flat-rate pricing that the ads can easily communicate. They also encourage user-friendly product designs and intuitively sensible features that don't require customers to learn a lot.

Other carriers are going for the emotional tug but with a less cosmic image. Western Wireless, which dubbed its PCS offering VoiceStream, takes a serious line. "A lot of the image advertising surrounding our retail messages tends to have very honest, real, straightforward situations," Dotson says. "We think that's going to be the long-term critical component in forming the emotional bonds that brands try to get."

Western Wireless' ads address "the emotional benefit of VoiceStream as a product," Dotson notes. Such an approach sets the carrier's ads apart from rivals' whose designers think, "How big can I make the price point?" before slapping in a photo of a phone and calling the ad done.

"I don't know why people are using ad agencies to that. It doesn't make any sense," Dotson adds.

Little Chute, Wis.-based Airadigm Communications, a C-Block GSM carrier, branded its network "Einstein" and added the tag line "Simply Genius" in a bid to make its PCS offering seem smart and easy-to-use, says Jim Wurm, marketing director. The campaign does not use the legendary scientist's physical image, however, letting the name itself evoke the attribute of intelligence.

Whimsical TV spots developed for Airadigm won silver Clio Awards earlier this year. The two 30-second television spots were created by Milwaukee agency BVK/McDonald. One spot showed an actor tossing a cellular phone, answering machine and pager into a blender, which produced a full-featured GSM phone. Another ad featured the same actor in a full-body Velcro suit stuck to a wall, dramatizing the restrictions of long-term cellular service contracts.

The commercials "are a little bit on the glib side, but nevertheless, they do get down to the core matter that this is good for you, the high-end user on the move in the local area, the business user," says Airadigm President and Chief Operating Officer Carl Artman. "Though we are attracting a lot of other people outside of just business users with that concept, we did want to maintain a baseline of seriousness," he says. "But business people can have fun, too, right?"

As for why Airadigm branded its product something different from the company name, Artman acknowledges that Airadigm chose its corporate identity without a lot of effort. After winning its markets under the name of Wireless PCS, the merging of the words "air" and "paradigm" created an interesting corporate moniker. "We liked it internally, and this was a mistake we made as a small company. We took a much deeper look when we did our brand name," Artman recalls.

The heart of the matter Indeed, all carriers continually are delving deeper into their branding and marketing messages. Sprint PCS has conducted more than 100 focus groups as well as scads of quantitative research, Levine notes. "We're trying to understand where the market is and where the market is going, which is the real challenge," he says.

PrimeCo pursued a laborious process to screen numerous ad campaign plans before settling on seven that its agency, The Richards Group, developed. Over several months, the candidates were whittled to three campaigns that were taken to focus groups. The PrimeCo Pink campaign won unanimous kudos both from the focus groups and within PrimeCo's marketing team, says the PrimeCo spokeswoman.

The Richards Group also is conducting an ongoing awareness and tracking study. The company performed a benchmark survey the week before the PrimeCo Pink TV campaign started and will do a follow-up in January 1998. The sampling of 1300 participants located across all PrimeCo markets will target product and brand awareness as well as attitudes toward PrimeCo and its competitors, says Ken Umansky, principal in The Richards Group.

Regardless of the message, PCS carriers are dropping big bucks to pitch their offerings. Sprint estimates that by the end of the Jetson campaign's eight-week run, reach and frequency would total 95% of adults viewing an average of 21 ads for the Sprint Store, or more than 2.3 billion impressions for the store's TV advertising alone. TV ad placement focused on top-rated shows across all major networks and cable channels as well as spots during the 1997 Major League Baseball World Series. The company placed print ads in a number of publications, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Fortune and Forbes.

Outside the RadioShack Jetsons ads, Sprint PCS' primary campaign is called "Observation," and features several TV spots that relay fundamental benefits of Sprint PCS. "We also are the telecommunications sponsor for the National Football League. That includes both wired and wireless products-and we are trying to capitalize on that sponsorship in everything we do," Levine says. The company is running a series of three ads featuring NFL personalities during Monday Night Football and at other times.

In addition, RadioShack has been running ads during Monday Night Football featuring the Sprint PCS store within a store. "In a quarter of football, it is very likely that you will see four Sprint/Sprint PCS ads," adds Levine.

Like other carriers, Sprint PCS is using different media to get across varied messages. Although not true in every case, carriers are looking to TV for image building, and they look to radio and newspaper ads to focus more on features or, as appropriate, specific limited-time offers.

PrimeCo's alien has been featured in a series of 30-second spots in prime-time television shows and early evening and morning news programs as well as local radio spots. The alien spots are episodic, providing the foundation for a long campaign. PrimeCo also is revving up to use the animated character in print ads, in-store displays and point-of-purchase merchandising. PrimeCo's more than 2000 indirect retailers will be able to use the alien in their own ads, the PrimeCo spokeswoman notes.

Weaving on the Web Other media, such as outdoor advertising, direct mail, bus wraps and telephone solicitation, are finding their way into the wireless advertising mix as well. The World Wide Web also is providing marketing opportunities, although it is playing a sales support role rather than providing an actual sales venue for most PCS carriers.

"Right now, it's very important that customers understand issues like coverage and how they can use all the different things that we offer. Today we feel a consultative sell is really important," says Levine. Sprint PCS tries to steer Web surfers into retail outlets and lists its toll-free customer service number on the Web site, he notes.

"Ultimately, we will be selling [on the Web] once people understand what Sprint PCS is all about," Levine adds.

However, Kang thinks wireless consumers are ready to purchase via the Web. "Web users and potential wireless buyers have a lot of common characteristics. They are educated, innovative, higher in income, younger, either urban or suburban, and somewhat risk-taking," he notes.

Airadigm uses two World Wide Web addresses-www.airadigm.com and www.einsteinpcs.com-for the same site, and the company is hoping to open a cyber-store by the holiday season. "Today, you have to throw the Web into the advertising mix. You're creating a huge disadvantage for yourself if you don't, especially if you're trying to be a high-tech company in the communications business," notes Artman.

Regardless of the media employed in marketing, the experts agree that building customer loyalty should be the advertising focus for every PCS carrier. "Remember that product or brand differentiation is the only viable alternative to pure price-based competition," Kang says.

Adds Airadigm's Wurm, "I see us moving toward creating a lifestyle of a product, creating a need for a product, creating something that is a personal communications tool."

The fast pace of the wireless world is reflected in rapid turnover among PCS carriers' ad accounts and heated competition by agencies to grab a piece of wireless' multimillion-dollar golden ring.

In early October, Western Wireless switched its VoiceStream account from Boarders, Perrin, Norander to The Evans Group. Advertising Age estimated the account to be worth $20 million, which Robert Dotson, Western Wireless' vice president of marketing, says is "materially wrong." But he declines to provide another figure.

Chuck Levine, chief marketing officer for Sprint PCS, also disputes Ad Age estimates. Sprint's account, assigned to Hal Riney & Partners, was estimated to be worth $30 million, which Levine caustically terms "interesting." He adds that it would be difficult for anyone to have estimated Sprint PCS' ad costs because the company just began its NFL ad sponsorship in September.

Regardless of the exact figures, lucrative wireless accounts are prompting competition among ad agencies. Other notable agency switches this year include Pacific Bell Mobile Systems, which moved from Ogilvy & Mather to Ketchum Advertising, and PrimeCo PCS, which dropped Angotti, Thomas, Hedge for The Richards Group.

Western Wireless' primary reason for switching was that the carrier felt it needed a larger agency that could "grow with us at the rate we were growing," Dotson says. Western Wireless' former agency had billings of less than $20 million year while the new agency's annual billings are more than $300 million, he adds.

Another notable trend is the desire to deal with agencies closer to carriers' home bases. "We felt that having an agency close to us at Westlake [Texas] was definitely a benefit," says a PrimeCo spokeswoman, explaining the operator's switch to The Richards Group. She adds that PrimeCo will not use an agency that is also serving a direct competitor.

For its part, Sprint has mixed ad agency talent to find the right combinations. Sprint PCS' agency Hal Riney produced the NFL ads for Sprint and Sprint PCS, even though Grey Advertising and J. Walter Thompson USA are Sprint's primary agencies.

Meanwhile, The Lord Group developed Sprint PCS' Jetsons campaign.

Ken Umansky, principal with The Richards Group, suggests some guidelines for choosing an ad agency. The best candidates should:

* know the wireless business or are willing to learn it

* understand wireless product distribution points, which are quite unique

* work hard and can turn around creative product quickly

* have a strong record of creativity that gets across the right messages.

Umansky, whose firm was co-winner of this year's A+ Creative Award from the American Association of Advertising Agencies, notes, "Good creative makes your advertising work harder."