Mediacom was challenged to demonstrate the ease of switching to Sky's unlimited broadband and achieved this through a mass scale campaign using clever and relevant copy.

1. Title: Sky Broadband Switch and Save
Category: Omnimedia
SUMMARY: We were challenged to demonstrate the ease of switching to Sky’s unlimited broadband
and this was achieved through a mass scale campaign using clever and relevant copy – showing that
switching is as easy as turning a page. This campaign was planned to granular detail but in multiple
titles and with multiple creative placed in sequential order – no mean feat. The campaign was a huge
success for Sky, beating sales and upgrade targets.
Background and objectives
A major barrier to switching broadband is the perception that it’s a lot of effort and people simply
won’t bother doing it – it is more convenient to stick with their current provider.
We needed to demonstrate the ease of switching and had a product truth from Sky to communicate:
Sky is the only provider with a dedicated switching team offering end to end service - “The Sky
Switch Squad”.
Our objective for Sky was to drive short term sales and increase intention to purchase for Sky
Broadband, with the aim of persuading active and dormant Sky consumers to
upgrade and switch to Sky Broadband, and new consumers to switch and buy Sky broadband
as a standalone.
As a trusted source of information, coupled with their ability to build large scale reach very quickly
and reach an upmarket family audience, newsbrands were the perfect media to communicate our
message.
Insight & Strategy – consumers don’t switch provide because it’s a nuisance
We identified that the main reason people avoid switching is convenience. Therefore, the key
campaign principle was to demonstrate that ‘the output of the experience is greater than the input
of the customer’ – however, we needed to bring this to life through smart implementation.
We recognised that Sky Families with BT broadband represented the best source of growth during
January, which is the prime time for customers switching their supplier. Therefore our target
audience was ABC1 Families with BT Broadband (1.6m), with a wider target of ABC1 Families (3.6m).
We knew that we could reach a significant number of these consumers via a broad selection of
national newspapers.
Our resultant strategy in print was to use consecutive formats in national press to demonstrate how
‘switching to Sky Broadband is as easy as turning a page’.
The Plan – consecutive formats showed that switching is as easy as turning a page
Newsbrands are the original interactive medium – you need to interact with the media to consume
it! To convey the convenience message we use sequential formats including consecutive right hand
half pages and consecutive right hand vertical strips, demonstrating simply that ‘switching is as

2. simple as turning a page’ - this evolved creatively into ‘Turn over a new leaf this year…and you could
save over £200 on your broadband’
These messages were ‘reasons to believe’ and using them sequentially we re-enforced the message
to overcome the perceived barriers to switching.
Our campaign needed to be broad and with as high a reach as possible. We therefore used a broad
title selection across national press Quals, Mids, Pops and Commuter titles to reach ABC1 Sky
Families with BT Broadband and halo onto the broader ABC1 Families audience.
Once the message had been established, single half pages were introduced to work in addition to
the consecutive formats to increase campaign frequency.
Tablet activity across Newsbrands added incremental reach in premium environments and allowed
people to tap the numbers 1,2,3 to find out more reasons to switch – ‘Switching to Sky Broadband is
as easy as 1,2,3’
Advertorials in women’s weeklies ran concurrently with national press to educate and activate core
ABC1 Sky families, and showcase how Sky makes it easy to switch with the Switch Squad.
The campaign also ran across TV, Digital, Radio and OOH, all amplifying the message that it is easy to
switch with Sky Broadband with creative messaging such as ‘Switching is as easy as a click’.
Flexibility in format was the key to this campaign in all media allowing us to execute the same simple
message in a creative way and reach the audience en masse. Newsbrands were the ideal
environment to do this, but were all the more impactful due to the way this messaging layered
across all media in creative ways.
Results
Over the quarter Sky Broadband Press beat its targets, achieving upgrade switches to Sky
broadband and standalone sales.
There was a significant increase in Sky Broadband upgrades during the Switch & Save campaign as a
result of our Press activity. Overall upgrades were up 11% year on year January-March 2013, and
15% up on the previous record Q1 performance.
Client view
“The Switch and Save campaign was about conveying the ease of changing your broadband provider
to Sky, and so MediaCom looked at clever media executions to exemplify this. The print element of
the campaign was a simple, yet novel way of highlighting this switch message and the ease of it:
through the use of consecutive right hand formats, we were able to create bespoke messaging that
resonated with our audience, and that successfully demonstrated the switching philosophy. As easy
as turning a page!”
Carli Farmer, Brand Marketing Controller – Communications, British Sky Broadcasting