Portland firms snag FairPoint account
Two local advertising firms are the beneficiaries of contracts with FairPoint Communications, which left a big Boston advertising firm to bring the work to Maine.
FairPoint selected Garrand to work on its marketing campaign for medium and large businesses, particularly as it rolls out a new suite of high-speed Internet service called VantagePoint. The VIA Group, which developed the communication company's current ad campaign featuring "bundles," will focus on residential, small business and social media initiatives.
Jeff Nevins, spokesman for FairPoint, declined to reveal the value of the contracts, except to say it's a "significant piece of business," or the length of the contracts. But he said switching from Boston-based Hill Holliday to the Portland firms was another example of the company's commitment to supporting the local economies of the northern New England states where FairPoint took over Verizon's landline operation this year.
"We said local vendors and suppliers will be given preference, and when we found two high-caliber agencies in Portland, that's just part of what we said we'd do," he says. He added that both agencies' knowledge of the market and expertise sealed the deal.
Nevins acknowledges that marketing will be key as the North Carolina-based company tries to rebuild its image following its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in October. The switchover last spring from the Verizon data system to its own was fraught with customer complaints and problems. Nevins says he's confident the new products FairPoint intends to introduce shortly will restore the company's reputation.
VantagePoint, which allows flexibility in service and pricing for broadband, is being tested now in Vermont, says Nevins, and should be available throughout FairPoint's market in early 2010. Dubbed the "next generation network," VantagePoint is expected to allow customers expanded broadband service when they need it and normal service when they don't.
Nevins added that some residual service issues around installations remain from the company's rocky start, but "largely we're out of the woods."
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