From
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...9-7582,00.html
TELSTRA'S online arm BigPond may become the first Australian advertiser to
develop a television sitcom based on one of its TV commercials following the
huge success of the rabbits ads that promote its internet broadband product.
News TV ads that feature the father and son characters Patrick and Daniel
will launch during the Olympic Games as part of parent company Telstra's
broadcast and mobile media sponsorship of the event.
But news the telco is considering making branded content from its own ad
campaign comes as BigPond group managing director Justin Milne revealed it
was making more than $60million a year by charging for content online and on
mobile phones.
Mr Milne outlined the telco's progress in turning itself into a media
communications business at the Cannes International Advertising Festival
earlier this week. And in an interview with Media, he said BigPond was also
exploring new ways to market the brand.
"The fundamental thing is to make your marketing messages entertaining.
"We have had sitcoms suggested to us and a series of (interactive games)
where you ask Patrick questions (and he responds) on your mobile."
Creating advertiser-funded content consumers will choose to watch has been a
key theme at the advertising festival this week.
On Tuesday, media agency MindShare outlined how US beauty care brand Suave
(a Unilever product) and US telco Sprint co-funded the development of In the
Motherhood, a series of short video episodes that started life online but
have now been optioned by US network ABC for a possible prime-time TV show.
Rob Belgiovane, principal of creative ad agency Belgiovane Williams Mackay,
which created the rabbits campaign, said viewers were interested in the life
of Patrick and Daniel.
The ad agency has also created content for BigPond TV in the past and has
relationships with two production companies: @radical.media and Freehand.
In the original rabbits commercial, Daniel asks Patrick why the Great Wall
of China was built and he responds: "It was to keep the rabbits out."
"People go: where's the mother?" Mr Belgiovane said. "Patrick's a bit older
so there could be an angry first wife, a potential second wife. There are so
many questions you can start to see."
He said the telco was unsure how much life remained in the Daniel and
Patrick story, given that it had already spawned five commercials.
Meanwhile, Mr Milne said Telstra's rival Optus, which recently opted not to
renew a multimillion-dollar deal for Ninemsn to create a content portal for
it online, was losing mobile customer market share because it did not have a
robust content strategy.
"People who use our content tend to use more bandwidth so they're much more
loyal and they churn less," Mr Milne said. "We are growing at four times the
rate of them."
He would not reveal BigPond's direct content revenues but said the telco was
experiencing triple-digit growth and it had topped $60 million: "We've
almost doubled our revenue in the past year," he said.
Mr Milne said moves to help consumers distinguish more clearly between free
and paid content using tabs on the BigPond mobile browser were helping to
boost the use of both.
Paid-for content use alone had increased 43 per cent over the past six
months, he said.
"Sometimes if you give away a little bit you actually get a lot in return."
BigPond also charges for a subscription to 33 Foxtel channels and offers
paid-for on-demand content in areas of interest via BigPond TV, such as AFL
football subscription packages.
The Beijing Olympics are expected to be another big driver of mobile TV for
BigPond.
Mr Milne would not divulge subscription or viewing numbers for TV-style
content but said they were "on fire".
BigPond to pose sitcom question 
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