The ‘Power of &’ campaign, its biggest business-to-business initiative in recent history, aims to show how AT&T helps business customers navigate paradoxes in today’s complex business world and debuts during the 2016 Masters.
The telco is using its leveraging its rights as an Augusta sponsors to launch the fresh brand positioning campaign
Developed in harness with agency BBDO New York, the campaign is spearheaded by three TV commercials that debuted during the coverage of The Masters.
And yet the creative (unlike, say fellow Masters sponsor IBM’s B2B work) is not golf-themed or linked – despite AT&T’s status as just one of the three global sponsors (along with IBM and Mercedes-Benz) of The Masters.
So it is accessing the tournament’s fan base (and the business leaders and high net worth executives who follow The Masters) that is crucial for this campaign.
AT&T believes that The Masters tournament is a good platform for it to reach business decision-makers across a range of titles and company sizes.
‘If you look at the people who watch the Masters on TV, there are a lot of technologists and a lot of CXOs – a lot of people will be watching the Masters from Wednesday through Sunday, so it’s a great chance to engage more deeply with this audience,’ explains AT&T Business Solutions CMO Steve McGaw.
The lead 60-second spot, called ‘& Everywhere’, explores how today’s business environment executives dilemmas – such as decisions about global expansion and cybersecurity, developing open networks while still maintaining security.
This is backed by a further two 30-second spots, called ‘Millions’ and ‘Penelope’, that highlight more specific AT&T solutions:
Throughout the executions, the ‘&’ symbol appears repeatedly and the TV work is further supported by print and online and social ads.
These include an eight-page print insert in both The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
All ad assets aim to drive users to a microsite at www.att.com/agility where they can learn more about how AT&T Business Solutions solves problems in different industries/
Comment
This campaign follows ;last year’s ‘Focus On What Matters’ and ‘It Can Wait’ Masters campaign – which shone a spotlight on AT&T’s security, workforce collaboration and connected device services (see case study).
In the sports and entertainment world it is slightly unusual to leverage flagship (and expensive) sponsorship rights through a major, consumer-facing B2B campaign, but perhaps this approach makes sense for AT&T.
After all, business now accounts for more than 50% of AT&T’s revenue and the campaign is part of the company’s current push into the enterprise space.
‘This is the biggest and most significant business ad campaign we’ve done in many, many years,’ says AT&T Business Solutions CMO Steve McGaw.
‘Business customers are looking for technology partners who can put tools and capabilities in their hands and build a support infrastructure that spans technologies — wireline, wireless and cloud — to help them navigate the paradoxes that parallel the market,’ adds McGaw.
‘Businesses want to be local and global at the same time. They want open architecture and open IT platforms, yet at the same time they want to be secure. These are the types of paradoxes we can help them address. This ‘Power of &’ became very symbolic of adding agility and durability.’
And yet, it is hard not to think that there could have been a clever link and more sensible synergy between the sponsor and the tournament and the new campaign.
After all, masters’ sponsorship-s are very few and far between.
Indeed, there are only five masters partners: three global sponsors in AT&T, IBM and Mercedes-Benz, and two international partners in UPS and Rolex.
In addition to a hospitality programme and a smaller campaign revolving around athlkete ambassador and defending champion Jordan Speith,
Our network is taking care of @JordanSpieth, so he can take care of business. #TheMasters https://t.co/D1gPLeO13ahttps://t.co/e0VW2wzJq7
— AT&T (@ATT) April 6, 2016
another more directly golf-related initiative the company is running around The Masters 2016 is a partnership with DIRECTV and (or should that be ”&’) creating the first live Masters broadcast in 4K/UHD.
Be part of a broadcasting FIRST tomorrow! #TheMasters https://t.co/NY2UksUzaM pic.twitter.com/DSVe30mWa0
— DIRECTV (@DIRECTV) April 6, 2016
Links
AT&T Website:
AT&T YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ATTEnterprise?nohtml5=False
The Masters:
