KEY POINTS:
TelstraClear is making a foray back into the retail market with a new advertising campaign aimed outside its stronghold of Wellington and Christchurch.
The old advertisement featuring a boy tugging on a rope by a beach has been screening again regularly over the last month, and will later this week be replaced by a new animated TV campaign based around two characters, TC and Bill.
It comes as its two largest competitors, Telecom and Vodafone, rake up huge advertising spending in their tit-for-tat pricing war for customers.
"This new campaign is about telling the rest of New Zealand what TelstraClear has to offer," said the company's head of corporate services Mathew Bolland.
"We'll be upping the ante to make sure that we are getting a very high level of presence, because this sector is just alive at the moment in terms of marketing spend."
The renewal in advertising follows a half-year hiatus.
In May, the company won Best ISP at the NetGuide People's Choice Web Awards, and last month a Commerce Commission report rated TelstraClear the best in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and joint winner with Orcon in Hamilton and Dunedin.
The wins marked a turnaround in the ISP's fortunes following a rocky 2007. It was forced to cancel a $50 million high-speed mobile network plan in Tauranga and announced more than 100 jobs would be shifted to Australia by 2009 amid speculation the New Zealand business would be folded after its Australian parent struck trouble.
Bolland said the new campaign would introduce some of its new products which it had been developing.
"It's very easy for some parties to go out and say this is what we will do, following regulation. Our approach is to basically get it up and running before we overpromise.
"We're now ready to expand and get more customers. Step one of that is telling them that you've got the products and you want their business."
The ad campaign will be aimed at business and residential customers, and Bolland expects it to run through the company's current financial year.
