Campaign of the Week: Sprint Ad With Verizon Spokesman Emphasizes Value

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Posted Jul 07, 2016

Sprint recently launched an ad campaign with a familiar face. But the face isn’t one that has appeared in Sprint ads before. In fact, he’s known for appearing in a series of ads for competing Verizon, where he repeatedly asked, “Can you hear me now?” to demonstrate Verizon’s reliability. But now he’s switched sides to call attention to Sprint’s value. What do consumers think about those Sprint ads with Verizon’s past spokesman? We asked 870 cell phone owners their thoughts on Sprint’s new ad campaign.

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Cell Phone Market

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, just 4% of cell phone owners said that they have switched to a new mobile service provider within the past month. 8% have switched in the past three months. 11% have done so in the past year. 43% said that it’s been over a year since they last switched mobile service providers. And 34% said they’ve never switched. 25% of cell phone owners said that they currently use Verizon as their mobile service provider. 24% use AT&T. 13% use T-Mobile. And just 10% use Sprint. However, 32% said they’ve at least tried using Verizon. 31% have used AT&T. 21% have used Sprint in the past. And 10% have used T-Mobile.

Ad Effectiveness

In general, 56% of respondents said that they’ve seen ads for mobile service providers within the past week. Of the roughly half of cell phone owning respondents who viewed a Sprint ad featuring Verizon’s old pitchman, Paul Marcarelli, 56% said that they recognized him from Verizon commercials in past years. Overall, just 6% of respondents said that they would be certain or practically certain about choosing Sprint the next time they purchase a mobile service contract. Another 6% said that they would almost certainly choose T-Mobile. 11% would choose AT&T. And 13% would choose Verizon. The respondents who viewed the ad weren’t any more likely to say that they’d choose Sprint. However, those respondents were slightly more likely to say that it would be very probable for them to choose Sprint. On the other end though, respondents who viewed the ad were slightly more likely to be certain or practically certain about choosing Verizon the next time they purchase a mobile service contract, but slightly less likely to say that it would be very probable for them to choose Verizon.

Brand Attributes

Sprint and Verizon have some differing attributes in the eyes of consumers. Overall, consumers said that they view Sprint as a brand that is flexible, made by a trustworthy company, and is one that offers value. However, Verizon ranked higher in terms of reliability and respectability. Those who viewed the Sprint ad were likely to select those same attributes for both brands. However, Sprint scored slightly higher in each attribute, especially being made by a trustworthy company. And Verizon scored slightly lower in terms of reliability and respectability.

Key Takeaways

It doesn’t seem like Sprint’s ad campaign with Verizon’s old spokesman is likely to bring in tons of immediate new contract purchases for the company. The ads didn’t make a big impact in the number of people who would be certain about choosing Sprint. However, they did have a slight impact on the number of people who would at least consider Sprint. And the fact that the ads impacted people’s perception of the brand’s value and trustworthiness could be another positive sign. Overall, if the ads can improve that perception and get some more people to at least consider Sprint the next time they purchase a new mobile contract, it gives the company another opportunity to really demonstrate their added value to consumers. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Sprint by Mike Mozart under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on July 5 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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