GULFPORT, Miss. (PRWEB) May 07, 2021
The Broadband Multimedia Marketing Association (BMMA) recently announced the winners of the 2021 Best in Class Marketing awards.
“Each year, the BMMA (http://www.bmma.org) recognizes teams and companies that demonstrate innovation and excellence in marketing broadband services,’’ said Ellis Hill, President of ResearchFirst, Inc., the BMMA’s management firm. This year’s awards went to two service providers, Cincinnati Bell and MTA, and two vendor companies, Calix and F-Secure, each of which executed best in class marketing practices related to broadband products and services.”
The winners are:
1. Cincinnati Bell (http://www.cincinnatibell.com) “Bridging the digital divide: Cincinnati Bell + Butler Rural Electric Cooperative Public/Private partnership”
Cincinnati Bell partnered with Butler Rural Electric Cooperative to deliver fiber internet to customers within the Butler Rural territory which falls on the edge and partially outside of Cincinnati Bell’s main operating area. The public-private partnership is bringing high speed broadband availability to under-served rural households and businesses that previously had very limited options for high-speed Internet. Butler Rural and Cincinnati Bell’s sales, marketing, and engineering teams worked collaboratively together to market and educate, pre-sell, and ultimately sell Internet into the Butler Rural customer base. The campaign was first launched in July 2020 and then had various rolling campaign tactics throughout 2020 and into early 2021 as the fiber build progressed and hopes for expansion in the future.
“I am honored to accept this award on behalf of Cincinnati Bell and all of our team members that contributed to its success. I’d also like to thank our great partners and new customers within the Butler Rural Electric Cooperative for the great partnership,” said John Barnes, Cincinnati Bell’s Director of Consumer Marketing.
This partnership has been an incredibly unique program from the start, as it strayed from Cincinnati Bell’s typical fiber build model and brought in a private partnership with a group of existing customers, with their own marketing team, from a second utility company. The Cincinnati Bell marketing team and Butler Rural marketing team had to work collaboratively to develop a full-cycle marketing program to best serve the needs of their members, while also overcoming some unique challenges. Since the fiber build began in July of 2020 and continues into 2021, this is not a “set it and forget it” set of tactics – everything they do has evolved over time and requires continued collaboration between both marketing teams to ensure ongoing success, with hopes to continue with future expansion within their member footprint. This process has also been a great exercise in challenging their normal processes and has established a program that can be utilized to expand within this partnership, but also as a model for any future partnerships with other utility companies, municipalities, etc.
2. Calix (http://www.calix.com) “Calix BLAST u4 Product Launch”
The Calix GigaSpire BLAST u4 is a compact Wi-Fi system that features a minimalist design with no protruding antennas or flashing lights on top. Consumers will happily place it in any room of their home, wherever they can assure that it will provide optimal coverage and throughput. At the same time, the GigaSpire BLAST u4 uses the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology, provides enhanced security, and can be fully managed using remote diagnostics tools.
The GigaSpire BLAST u4 product launch happened on September 24, 2020. In support of the launch, Calix hosted a webinar, produced a product video, posted a blog, issued a press release, and created a new web site. One of the highlights of the campaign was a YouTube-style ‘unboxing’ video, that their CSP partners can use on their web site to create excitement and awareness around the new product. It is unusual, creative elements like this video that Calix believe demonstrates marketing innovation, especially when compared with B2B marketing campaigns that are typical in the industry. Although specific sales information cannot be shared, the GigaSpire BLAST u4 launch was part of a record Q4 for sales of Calix Wi-Fi systems and contributed to a bump in the Calix stock price, which increased by 50+% in Q4 2020.
3. F-Secure & MTA (http://www.f-secure.com & http://www.mtasolutions.com ) “MTA Shield Product Launch”
MTA Shield was launched through a partnership between MTA and F-Secure, and was successfully rolled out in a tight three-month timeframe thanks to extensive research and the teams’ mutual dedication to educating and empowering customers. The two companies launched MTA Home Shield (secure router), MTA Mobile Shield (endpoint protection) and MTA Identity Shield (identity protection/password manager) with single-sign-on (SSO) implemented across all three products using MTA’s existing myMTA account structure. The partnership has continued through internal and external campaigns, agent training, agent events, and more.
“Thanks to F-Secure’s thorough efforts, comprehensive project plan and dedicated launch team, we were able to keep to the launch timeline as planned and successfully roll out this vital product to our members,” said Jonathan Babbitt, MTA’s V.P. of Product Management, Marketing and Sales.
While MTA Shield has only been available for a few months, its initial success and impact is significant. A good portion of the success so far is directly attributable to two major launch activities: the first being the research that MTA performed at the beginning of the project, which helped to ensure the product met the needs of the Alaska market in everything from pricing to the product’s names; the second major activity focused on training. MTA’s agents know why cybersecurity is important, both at home and on the go, and they’ve been able to educate customers while identifying the best product bundle for each family’s lifestyle. This combination of research and training has allowed MTA to be extremely successful with the new MTA Shield suite of products.
MTA Shield ensures members’ devices are safe and secure, and that their personal data is not at risk; this is invaluable in today’s world. Understanding the importance of this, MTA decided to make MTA Shield free to all its employees. F-Secure, aware of the impact that it would have on sales and support experience as well as word-of-mouth, fully supported the effort. This effort will continue to ensure that MTA employees continue to grow as champions of all three products.
“MTA’s focus on understanding their members needs and informing their agents have helped make this launch a huge success,” said Brian Murray, F-Secure’s Regional Vice President for North America, Operator Sales. “The solutions in this suite combine to provide MTA members the power to easily secure their families at home, and anywhere they go. We’re proud to join with MTA in accepting this award, and we’re even prouder to help give their members the freedom that comes from being in control of all your information security.”
About the BMMA
The BMMA is an international organization dedicated to helping Telco internet service providers and their vendors advance the adoption and use of broadband services.
Our membership includes many of the key Telco and broadband vendor organizations in North America and is open to any broadband industry Telco service provider, vendor, CPE manufacturer, government agency, consultant, analyst, or other party with a demonstrated interest in promoting the mission of the BMMA.
Our goal is to advance the adoption and use of broadband services by identifying key industry success factors and sharing best practice marketing initiatives, new product and customer trends and other relevant industry information.
Please see our website at http://www.BMMA.org for more information or to apply for membership in the BMMA.
Executive Director: ResearchFirst, Inc. (http://www.researchfirst.com)
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