CALGARY – Cue the robots. Shaw Communications’ workforce has catapulted in numbers. Zillions of delivery robots working within the national cable, satellite and broadcasting company’s network known as the “pipe’ now service the needs of its 3.4 million customers alongside customer care staff.
In a national campaign which launched November 5 that crosses all customer touch points, including television, print, online and out of home, Shaw (along with its agency, Vancouver’s Rethink) introduces us to its newly animated network and two of its cheeky delivery robots Bit and Bud (click here for one of the televised spots and here for more details)
“We live in a anytime, anyplace, on-the-go, fast-paced world and we have the fastest network in Canada,” says the newly minted chief marketing officer, Jim Little, on the importance of making the animated world about the pipe. “We love the world that’s been created. What we deliver through the pipe is what the business is about.”
Shaw customers —who can access broadband cable television, high-speed Internet, home phone, telecommunications (Shaw Business), satellite direct-to-home services (Shaw Direct) and programming content (Shaw Media)—are likely to be entertained for a long time with this new marketing platform. The “pipe” message is clear—“with the fastest network in the country, you won’t miss a thing”— and the robots are likeable, helpful.
In a recent statement released, chief executive officer Brad Shaw, spoke about his commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences, starting with “clear, consistent and engaging advertising.”
Little says Shaw hired him in March (away from the Royal Bank) with that purpose—“to help make the marketing a little more impactful, more consistent.” While several campaigns have been successful in the past, “we didn’t have an overall campaign theme,” Little says. “So one of the things we started looking at, was to have our advertising do a little more for us, to help us reach our customers.”
“We’re telling a very simple story of what we’re doing for the customer,” says Little. Fresh off the production line, Bit is an anxious rookie on the network who is “eager to prove himself”, notes the campaign. Bud is a cool “veteran who knows the Shaw network like the back of his grasping clamp.” Together with their crew, they profess to “give millions of Canadians the power to do just about anything—Internet, phone, television.”
In the end, they feel they “figured out how to blend the two things that had been kind of un-blendable—humanity and technology in the pipe. These robots are a gateway into very fun conversations where we fully expect people to want to know more about them, and the ‘bots—and get closer to them. It felt like an easy path to pursue,” says Little.
Using animated characters in this market isn’t new. For years, we’ve seen changes in technology made easier to navigate with creatures and their interpretations. Actually, we’ve become very adept at branding little fellows so we can differentiate between competitors in the Canadian market place.
Cue Telus’ wild animals (which actually date back to Clearnet Communications) running about cozying up to technology in the late 1990s.
Now cue the beavers. Bell (and Little, who was at the brand helm there at the time) introduced Frank and Gordon Beaver, yes those bumbling beaver customers who stumbled through service options. Frank and Gordon caused a bit of an uproar (people either loved or hated them) and eventually were replaced. (Bell has since resorted to real life replicas of Frank & Gordon consumer banter—cue the flustered boyfriend in the ladies dressing room saved by tech-savvy-tween watching live sports on his phone.).
“Brands these days are much more conversations than they were 12-13 years ago when the last rebrand was done at Shaw,” says Little. “Empathy, accessibility humanity and this platform really are a conversation with the community and the market place.”
Little is also ringing in a new corporate identity for Shaw with the launch of this campaign. “We de-capitalized the corporate identity, the logo. We wanted it to be more of a conversation; to highlight that it’s a family’s name and a very personal company.” They want customers to feel closer to Shaw and understand it cares about their needs.
We hope people will be entertained, more informed and open-minded to buy something from Shaw, says Little, for the long term.
