Cox Pitches Broadband to Big Business

March 30, 2004
Broadband Daily

Although cable operators are still not known to have a major hold on the enterprise broadband space compared to residential service, Cox Communications is launching an aggressive promotional effort to build its already-strong performance in delivering business-class services.

The company 3/29 launched an integrated marketing campaign to drive demand among enterprise and Fortune 500 companies for Cox's business-class high-speed Internet, voice, transport and video services. Titled "Think Bigger," the campaign will appear in 23 markets in newspapers, business journals and magazines such as BusinessWeek, Forbes, Time and Fortune.

Cox has already shown strong and consistent growth in the business sector, which provides such products and services as dedicated data transmission up to OC-192 speeds over fiber, T-1 and ATM, as well as VPN; Internet access; switched voice and long distance; web hosting and e-commerce; and carrier access services. Revenue in the business services arm climbed 28.7% year-over-year from Q4 02 to Q4 03, where it stood at $77.74 mil. As a percentage of all revenues for the MSO, business services rose from 4.5% to 5.2% in that time period.

But the ad campaign, which will also include TV and radio spots beginning in April, is aimed at elevating Cox's name recognition in the corporate arena.

"'Think Bigger' will be in all of our markets-and will make the request to the CIOs and CTOs to think bigger of Cox," said spokesman Bobby Amirshahi. Our brand is so much better known in the residential space."

Cox Business boasts more than 100K customers, including The Boeing Company, Wichita, Chesapeake Energy, First Fidelity Bank, MGM Mirage resorts, The Ocean State Higher education, Economic development and Administrative Network (Rhode Island's eight college network) and two key air force bases.