The market for fixed line broadband isn’t growing much anymore, at 1.7 million connections according to the latest count from ComReg, the telco regulator. Increasingly, broadband is sold as part of a triple-play or quad-play bundle of internet connection, phone service, TV stations and mobile calls.

For years UPC had a big product advantage with broadband. It was able to use its TV cable lines to pipe down much bigger bandwidth than its rivals. Then eir went on an investment spree to upgrade its DSL to faster VDSL, not quite as speedy as UPC fibre perhaps but good enough for many consumers.

Vodafone and Sky piggy-back on eir’s VDSL network with relentless selling machines. They all have UPC in their sights and were making some inroads. In the year to Q3 2015, UPC’s share of fixed broadband connections slipped marginally from 29.0% to 28.7%, Vodafone went from 16.9% to 17.7% and Sky’s share jumped from 7.0% to 9.4%.

Fightback

Now UPC is fighting back. The first step was to dump the UPC brand name and restyle as Virgin Media. That opportunity came about when UPC, a pan-European broadband and cable TV giant owned American company Liberty Global, purchased Virgin Media in the UK and decided to park UPC Ireland under the Virgin umbrella.

For the rebrand campaign, Virgin group founder Richard Branson (pictured) has been front and central. Oddly, Branson is deployed sparingly for Virgin brand marketing purposes in the UK but in Ireland we can’t get enough of the bearded tycoon.

Meadhbh Quinn, head of marketing at Virgin Media Ireland, explains: “One of the challenges with UPC was that while it had a very strong functional advantage, it was very much a utility in the minds of the consumers. Having the product differential was fine for a number of years, but as soon as the market caught up there was a real need to have a more powerful brand.”

From research, Quinn discovered that while Virgin Media wasn’t particularly well known in Ireland, people were very familiar with the Virgin brand and Richard Branson. “So we felt it would be easier to acquire and retain customers under Virgin Media,” says Quinn. “The Virgin brand is gift insofar as Irish consumers really like Virgin and what it stands for. They associate attributes such as progressive, disruptive and enterprising with the Virgin brand and they also have the same affinity towards Richard Branson.

Emotive Values

“There are many emotive values surrounding Virgin which are all around changing the game for the better so everyone benefits. That’s what we really want to adhere to going forward. The aim is to position our broadband as less of a utility and more of a gateway to all of the great entertainment and exploration it gives people.”

Branson was star attraction at the brand launch in Dublin last autumn and features prominently in Virgin Media’s ‘Here comes the magic’ TV commercial. “For the time being Richard has been very willing to cooperate and be part of the story,” says Quinn, adding that the advertising blitz will continue through 2016. “Spontaneous brand awareness isn’t turned on overnight, and we need to demonstrate that it’s not simply a name change but also a business transformation.”