RE: UKNM: AOL advertising

[Leslie Bunder]

In the last day or so, LineOne has reduced its monthly access charge

from �14.95 to �9.95 a month. 

so there is some reaction going on.


I agree, Freeserve must be eating into OSP and ISPs and other services

will do the same.  But at the end of the day, these services might be

free to access, but telephone support is charged at.  So it could work

out expensive for some folks.


Freeserve has certainly raised the awareness of free Net services, even

though there were several before it launched!  The mighty weight and

marketing muscle of Dixons does help.


I don't see paid for Net access going away.  The way forward is to offer

existing and potential cusotmers incentives to stay either through

enhanced content or other value added services.


And likewise, the free Net providers will also be looking at other

revenue streams to support themselves aside from the kick back on the

local call access number and premium rate phoneline.


Price will always be an issue, so I don't see how AOL will continue with

a �17.95 as much as you can eat package.  I suspect this will drop in

price in the new year.


It will be interesting to see what you do Steve with Funmail.  So are

you going down the Juno route which Phonelink plc and Scottish Widows

tried with Electornic Market and now Phonelink is doing with big mouth?


Leslie

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Leslie Bunder, technology writer

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> -----Original Message-----

>

From: Steve Bowbrick [SMTP:stevewebmedia [dot] com]

> Sent:	23 December 1998 12:57

>

To: uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

> Subject:	RE: UKNM: AOL advertising

> 

> >I don't think we should play chinese whispers with this ad.  Anyone

> from

> >AOL on the list who can confirm exactly what the "free" refers to in

> the

> >ad? Is it free trial, freephone support or freephone number to ring

> to

> >get the CD.

> 

> I think that's 'free' as in 'fear of Freeserve'. AOL's current mailer

> is


> about A5 in size and uses the word 'free' 27 times (not counting body

> copy). It is borderline misleading but just possible to work out that

> it's

> the trial period that's free. I think the TV ad is also talking about

> the

> trial period.

> 

> Seriously, Freeserve must represent a terrifying prospect for AOL. In

> an

> immature market where your story is not already widely understood,

> differentiating paid-for access with huge amounts of bundled

> content/services from free access is going to be very hard work.

> Imagine

> Freeserve and AOL TV ads going head to head - the apparent benefits of

> AOL

> would be impossible to communicate, especially when Freeserve can, at

> least

> superficially, claim quite a lot of content via partnerships. I think

> the

> only thing that can now stop consumer access going free might be an

> attack

> of timidity among the free players - unlikely.

> 

> s

> 

> --

> | Steve Bowbrick            | 0171 284 0777 phone |

>

| stevewebmedia [dot] com (mailto:stevewebmedia [dot] com) | 0171 428 9981 fax |

> | http://www.bowbrick.com   | 0468 257 570 mobile |



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