If succesful, Dish Network’s US $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel will have many advertising and marketing implications. Taking over the third-largest mobile carrier in the U.S., with 55 million subscribers, would allow DISH to offer video, high-speed internet and voice service across the country, both in and outside of the home. For media properties the big question is whether Dish and Sprint will consolidate some of their advertising and media budgets. Both companies, particularly Dish, are large advertisers in the Hispanic market.
Taking over the third-largest mobile carrier in the U.S. with 55 million subscribers, would allow DISH to offer video, high-speed internet and voice service across the country, both in and outside of the home. Although DISH does provide video service, its satellite internet service is not as fast as those from wired providers.
Improved Targeted Advertising through Nationwide Mobile Phone and Video Service
By uniting Dish and Sprint Charles Ergen, Dish Network’s Chairman, would create the first US company to offer nationwide mobile phone, data and video services. Dish could then use location and content consumption data, among other factors, to deliver targeted adverts, he said.“We think we can target commercials even better on a mobile basis,” Mr Ergen told the Financial Times. “We’ll know where you are with GPS. We’ll know who you call. We’ll know how you spend your money with the phone being a wallet in the future. All that goes together.”
Interestingly, Telefonica and Sprint recently created a mobile advertising alliance to provide a platform for brands to target the two operators’ 370 million mobile subscribers worldwide. The deal is a tie-up between Telefonica Digital, the Spanish-based operator’s digital arm, and Pinsight Media+, US operator Sprint’s recently-launched advertising arm.
Marketing Budgets
Both Dish and Sprint Nextel are major advertisers in the U.S. general market and the U.S. Hispanic market. Dish is actually the Number 1 Hispanic Advertiser according to a recent Nielsen ranking (Quarter 3, 2012 to Quarter 2, 2013) with US$ 324 million in advertising investment. Sprint-Nextel occupies the sixteenth place in the ranking with US $79 million.
After DirecTV phased out its Hispanic subscriber acquisition strategy and integrated it into its general market strategy, competitor Dish Latino has stepped up its own Hispanic marketing activity. “Advertising in the multicultural space is crucial, and we allocate our expenditures in a very measurable way: net subscriber growth,” Alfredo Rodriguez, VP of marketing at DISH, recently told Portada.According to another source (Advertising Age’s 2012 Hispanic Fact-Pack), Dish Latino, Dish’s Hispanic brand, is now the second-largest advertiser in Hispanic media, after Procter & Gamble.
Digitas is the primary agency for the Sprint brand, managing brand strategy, advertising, digital, offline media, digital buying and analytics. Dish Latino media buying and planning is mostly handled by Miami based Hispanic Group, Media 8 does digital marketing and Marca works on retention.
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