By Alexandra Bruell 

One of the biggest advances in telecom technology in a decade is forcing the industry's largest players to rethink their advertising approach.

As carriers begin to roll out 5G -- fifth-generation technology expected to amplify wireless speeds and power -- some are focusing on emotive advertising that shows how the upgrade changes people's lives, rather than solely promoting the price and functionality of their plans.

These companies are no longer just utilities, says Daniel Binns, the New York chief executive of branding firm Interbrand, which works with a handful of carriers. "They have to transform the way people live and work," he says. "There's emotion in that story."

In late 2017, Verizon Communications Inc. launched an ad campaign showing how the company's network, backed by 5G, will be able to change the world, from powering robotic surgery to easing traffic congestion and controlling pollution. More recently, it aired a Super Bowl spot showing the role the network played in helping first responders save football players' lives.

"There will be a lot less ads about the technology itself, and a lot more ads about what people can do with that technology or the experience they can have with Verizon," says the company's chief marketing officer, Diego Scotti.

As the industry's role in everyday lives continues to increase, the telecom giants are positioning themselves as tech companies rather than just phone and internet providers.

The transition is from a seller of talk, texts and data to a company that delivers the technology of the future, making it easy to understand and easy to subscribe, says Sprint Corp. Chief Marketing Officer Roger Solé.

Sprint, for example, is currently marketing packages that bundle phone plans, security services and Hulu access with its "LTE Advanced" network, a "steppingstone" to 5G, as Mr. Solé describes it. Once the company implements 5G widely, he says he expects the marketing to shift gears again, telling stories with a more emotional bent.

The stories companies tell won't just tug at heartstrings, however. Each carrier will need to continue to work hard to convince increasingly skeptical consumers that its technology is better than that of rivals.

Large carriers have a history of making bold claims about their capabilities in ads and of taking jabs at competitors. For example, former Verizon "can you hear me now" spokesman Paul Marcarelli moved to Sprint in 2016, saying in the ads that even he switched to Sprint.

"Every time there's a technology innovation, we see a surge in competitor complaints about the claims made around that technology," says Laura Brett, director of the National Advertising Division of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council. The division, which is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, reviews ads and provides recommendations about whether they are truthful based on standards set by cases the NAD has reviewed.

There's already a flare-up among two of the industry's top players. Sprint recently filed a lawsuit against AT&T Inc. over a branding effort that according to Sprint falsely leads customers to believe they are getting 5G service on their phones. The suit was filed in U.S. federal court for the Southern District of New York.

AT&T recently began adding to phone screens in hundreds of markets a "5Ge" label, which stands for 5G Evolution. The company promoted the new label in a new ad campaign called "Just OK Is Not OK."

Rivals say AT&T plan holders may confuse 5Ge for full-fledged 5G, which has not yet been widely implemented. A number of carriers have said that they expect to implement 5G this year.

After AT&T began using the 5Ge label, Verizon Chief Technology Officer Kyle Malady published a blog calling on the wireless industry to "commit to labeling something 5G only if new device hardware is connecting to the network using new radio technology to deliver new capabilities."

"The success of the 5G technological revolution must be measured in truth and fact, not marketing hype," he wrote.

An AT&T spokesman says the company intends to fight the lawsuit. According to the spokesman, the carrier introduced the 5G Evolution idea more than two years ago as "a first step" in the transition from LTE to "standards-based 5G." The 5G Evolution label is meant simply to "let customers know when their device is in an area where our network has been upgraded to enable faster speeds," the spokesman says.

T-Mobile US Inc., in a pre-Super Bowl press release, took jabs at both AT&T's 5Ge effort and the new Verizon ad campaign. In its release, T-Mobile, which refers to itself in some advertising as "the Un-carrier, " wrote: "The Un-carrier is staying mum on what exactly will be announced, but have assured fans they won't be 'Pulling a Verizon' (aka pretending they care about first responders and then throttling them during an ACTUAL emergency) or 'Pulling an AT&T' (aka wasting your time with some stupid-a$$ 5GE, F, G or whatever the hell that mess is)."

In response, a spokesman for AT&T says, "We're the first, and still the only, company offering standards-based mobile 5G in 12 cities and will be nationwide with mobile 5G in early 2020." A Verizon spokeswoman declined to respond.

Telecom carriers tend to make lots of claims about their networks in their ads, says the National Advertising Division's Ms. Brett. But, she adds, the carriers are more willing than companies in other industries to regulate themselves and adjust their messages when the NAD reviews a challenge to an ad claim and recommends that the carrier stop making the claim.

While most disputes taken up by the NAD get resolved, some don't, in which case they may go to the Federal Trade Commission. The number of telecom cases that were reviewed and closed by the NAD doubled to 14 in 2018 from seven in 2017, says Ms. Brett, who declines to say whether there are other complaints yet to be resolved.

Meanwhile, Sprint's Mr. Solé says, the competition in ads surrounding 5G is likely to become even more intense. Marketing 5G is going to require a lot of explanation, he says. "It's an industry that's super competitive. We fight every quarter and every month for our base."

Ms. Bruell is a Wall Street Journal reporter in New York. Reach her at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com.

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 26, 2019 22:16 ET (03:16 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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