Saatchi & Saatchi NZ & Sweetshop make badnet a thing

Carl’s dog has to wait for its multi-coloured ball to stop spinning in the air. His clothes airer collapses. Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand dishes up a collection of wonderfully relatable analogies for the frustration of sub-par broadband in its campaign for internet infrastructure provider, Chorus. It even coins a name for the problem, badnet.

More importantly, the agency succeeds in making everyday Kiwis care about a B2B product – fibre broadband – and ask for it.

Karren Harker, head of marketing for Chorus said, “As we complete the rollout of the fibre network and demand for fibre grows, we are swiftly moving through the adoption curve. Uptake of fibre is now at just under 60% and that means were now talking to the last adopters. They are a notoriously hard audience to engage with on technology, feeling more comfortable in the adoption only when a product has gone mainstream. Our latest campaign is focussed on tapping into this mindset bypositioning fibre as the new normal and demonstrating the everyday benefits to build desire for those last adopters to convert.”

The campaign was creatively led by Kristal Knight and Corey Chalmers. Kristal Knight, said, “New Zealand has one of the best fibre networks in the world and by 2022 it will be available to 87% of the population. But many New Zealanders still don’t realise that fibre is the best way to enjoy the internet as it’s meant to be. So this campaign was about gently letting them know that gloriously fast and reliable internet is the new normal now.”

Corey Chalmers added, “Often people aren’t aware that their poor experience isn’t normal and that they don’t have to put up with it. We hope this will serve as a reminder that there is a solution out there that will put an end to Kiwi’s ‘badnet’ experiences.”

The campaign launched on Sunday, August 16, and will run across TV, online video, OOH, radio, digital and social. The 60-second hero commercial is complemented by two 15-second cutdowns.