Until they didn't buy it.
It was planning season for Cox Business, and we kicked it off with some scrappy, undercover research. We called them. Not our clients. We called their customer service line and pretended to be small businesses looking into internet and voice services. In a category that habitually, instinctually fights for the top spot on every "Most Hated Companies in America" list, we were expecting the calls to be... unsatisfactory. But as our Planning Director put it, "I just had the best customer experience of my life and I'm not even a customer."
The Cox Business customer care team was amazing. Maybe that's why they're the one telecom company that never seems to show up on all those dubious lists. Maybe it's also why the brand laps the rest of the category in Net Promoter score.
We knew our direction for the year was customer service. And the client agreed.
We created a campaign that positioned the brand's high customer care marks in stark contrast to a category with that unsavory reputation. In an industry everyone expected to be bad, Cox Business was doing so much that was good. And in a business and political climate where good didn't always seem to be a priority, we thought good business could be great for business.
I know what you're thinking. This could really use a manifesto. Okay.
The pitch was all about the big idea, an umbrella brand thematic for the year against which we could execute campaigns and activations for more specific business needs and priorities. But as proof of concept, we demonstrated how the idea might extend to position the behaviors of our customer care team as feel-good points of difference. Or, how powerful, easy-to-use solutions that just seem to work the way they should can also make a business owner feel... good.
The idea didn't feel like anything we had seen in the category. Maybe, in the end, that's why it still won't be seen in the category.
Art Direction - Natasha Zerjav
Writing & Creative Direction - Terry Stewart