Here at Plusnet Towers we’ve been incredibly busy lately, getting ready to kick off a massive advertising campaign in London. For those of you who live in London, you might have seen the first part of our campaign already – we’ve been sponsoring the ITV London Weekday weather since the end of July. If you haven’t, you can watch the clips here
As of Monday we’ve had posters across London Underground, on London buses and in several London newspapers.
As I’m sure you’re aware, Plusnet has grown in part due to customers recommending our service to their friends. We wanted to get this across in our campaign, which is why we’ve gone for ‘8 out of 10 Plusnet customers would recommend us’ across all formats.
To coincide with the big launch we’re running a competition too. Sticking with the themes of 8 out of 10 and recommendations, we’d like you to suggest 8 things you’d recommend and your reasons why. Email your entry to 8outof10@plus.net by the end of 31st October, we’ll pick the best one on 1st November (competition extended), and the winner will receive an iPod Shuffle (yes, the tiny one that talks to you).
To get you started, here’s an internet themed list of recommendations (well, what else did you expect from an ISP?):
Remember to get your competition entries in by midnight on 31st October for the chance to win an iPod Shuffle, but do keep it all in good taste. We’ll post the winning entry and some of our favourites too. One final thing, here’s all the legal stuff I need to tell you about, since it’s a competition and all:
1. The competition is open to UK residents aged 18 or over, other than employees of Plusnet, its agencies or their families.
2. The prize is 1 first prize of iPod Shuffle
3. The prize is subject to availability.
4. The Promoter reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value if this is necessary for reasons beyond its control.
5. To enter the draw you must submit a list of 8 things you’d recommend and your reasons why to 8outof10@plus.net by midnight 31st October 2009
6. The winner will be decided by an independent person on 1st November 2009. The Winner will be notified by email on or before 8th November 2009. The Promoter reserves the right to re-draw the prizes if any of the prize-winners cannot be contacted within a reasonable period of time (to be established at the promoter’s sole discretion).
7. A list of prize winners (name and county only) may be obtained by written request by sending an SAE to 8 out of 10 Competition, Plusnet plc, Internet House, 2 Tenter Street, Sheffield, S1 4BY on or before 15th November 2009.
8. The winner may be required to participate in publicity events after the draw and by entering the promotion acknowledge their consent to take part in publicity and for their name/photo to be published.
9. By entering this promotion, participants agree to be bound by these terms and that the decision of the promoter is final and binding in all matters relating to this promotion.
10. No cash alternative will be offered for the prize.
11. The Promoter reserves the right to alter, amend or foreclose this competition without prior notice in the event that unforeseen circumstances make this unavoidable.
12. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for any loss, damage, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant resulting from entering this competition or by the entrant’s acceptance of the prize. Nothing shall exclude the Promoter’s liability for death or personal injury resulting from its negligence.
13. This promotion is governed by the laws of England and Wales.
14. The Promoter is Plusnet plc, Internet House, 2 Tenter Street, Sheffield, S1 4BY. Registered in England No. 3279013.
[...] you’ve probably seen (especially if like me you’ve been to London) we’re all over the place with posters and adverts, a couple of which are pictured below (excuse my bad photography and bad Wordpress skills) which is [...]
Many thanks to Colin for the Jubilee Line Tube Car Panel pic
Would it not make more sense to aim for a market that is not already saturated for choice which will be difficult to compete with?
Plusnet are most competitive in market 3 now... Where else can you get broadband for £5.99/month or less without being a Sky customer?
Maybe it's true that you can't get cheaper broadband than £5.99, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's good value. I saw one of the big poster ads on Saturday whilst waiting a few minutes for a Waterloo & City Line train, which gave me plenty of time to read the small print... which included something along the lines of 'please note that Plusnet Value is £5.99 for 10GB and is being compared to TalkTalk Essentials at £6.49 for 40GB'... so whilst Plusnet are slightly cheaper, they also give you a lot less.
(NB. I'm not actually passing judgement on Plusnet's value proposition here - I'm just highlight a point of view.)
The small print on a PDF proof shown to PUG is as follows. I am assuming it has not been changed since.
--
* 79% of customers would recommend Plusnet to a friend – uSwitch Customer Satisfaction Survey 2009. ^ One-off Postage and Packaging charge of £6.99 for Wireless Router. † Plusnet Value Broadband £5.99 a month subject to local availability. 18 month minimum term. Phone line (non-cable) required. Subject to availability, terms and conditions – see website for details http://www.plus.net **Plusnet Value Broadband is cheaper than TalkTalk Essentials package that costs £6.49 a month (plus £11.25 monthly line rental) on an 18 month contract.
TalkTalk Essentials package includes local calls, unlimited evening and weekend calls to certain UK numbers and evening and weekend 0845/0870 calls. It also provides 40GB monthly download limit, whereas Plusnet Value Broadband provides 10GB download limit per month. Plusnet monthly line rental is £10.95 and Plusnet Talk provides included evening and weekend calls to local and national numbers and 300 included international minutes to top 20 destinations at no additional cost. Please visit http://www.plus.net/why for full details.
TalkTalk Essentials has a 40GB limit, Plusnet Value has a 10GB peak time limit, but we also offer unlimited off-peak usage.
This is similar to a point I made recently about plusnet comparing themselves to poor performing ISP's..compare yourself to one of the major players and youl turn peoples heads...compare yourself to underlings and people will think 'so what' Compare something like for like...not something that has half a ton of small print. It always annoys me when you see ads like 'broadband for £3.00...then somewhere where poeples cant normally see is the 'for three mnoths then the normal price of £20.oo...loads of firms do it..it must work...buts underhand IMHO
Bang goes my Ipod!! lol..(only an observation guys, not a criticism)
"Plusnet has grown in part due to customers recommending our service to their friends. We wanted to get this across in our campaign, which is why we’ve gone for ‘8 out of 10 Plusnet customers would recommend us’ across all formats."
Should really read, "8 out of 10 Plusnet customers would recommend us when offered a financial incentive", surely?
It's a (potentially) dangerous assumption to suggest that just because 8 out of 10 customers made use of the referrel program in exchange for a reduction in their monthly fees, that 8 out of 10 customers would actually recommend PlusNet.
Granted, I was a very happy PlusNet customer for a year, and only change suppliers because of a change in my circumstances and the contractual commitments already in place at the house I moved into, so i'm probably just being over cynical...
The 8 out of 10 statement isn't based on how many cutomers have referred, it's based on this year's uSwitch Customer Satisfaction survey results.
So it's a misleading statement - presumably you would like people to interpret
"8 out of 10 Plusnet customers would recommend us" as being
"8 out of 10 Plusnet customers did recommend us"
Not the same thing.
In this year's uSwitch Customer Satisfaction survey, 8 out of 10 people said that they would be happy to recommend Plusnet. Nothing misleading there Axis.
I didn't think we got unlimited off-peak usage anymore on the £5.99 deal?
Gerry - any usage between midnight and 8am each day doesn't count towars the 10GB peak time allowance, so you can donwload as much as you like overnight.
I would not recommend your company to anyone, you do not care about your customers,you do not deal with problems all you do is "escalate" and go nowhere.
Since being take over by BT your popularity rating at "Which" has nose dived. I wonder why?
Be interested to see if you post my negative comments about your company
Personally I feel that someone from your company should contact me rather than non entities in South Africa and beyond or maybe I should send a letter to the home address of a few directors
P
let it out Peter, let it out!
Thank you for interesting post. But I had difficult time navigating past your site as I kept getting 502 bad gateway error. Just thought to let you know.
Here at Plusnet we're always trying to use clever open source things to make our lives easier. Sometimes we write our own and make other people's lives easier too!
We sell broadband, phone, VoIP and more to homes and businesses in the UK. Winner of 9 out of 11 Categories in the 2008 USwitch survey. Winner of "Best Consumer ISP" at 2008 ISPA awards. Voted number 1 in the Broadband Choices 2008 survey.
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