May 2009 Archives

Telecom and marketing.

 

It's nice to see that money is still being spent to promote telecommunications related brands.

 

As official sponsor of the Women's Tennis Association Sony Ericsson marked the start of the Madrid Open with 'Underground Tennis' a marketing promotion designed to draw some attention to the upcoming tournament.

 

Elena Dementieva and Caroline Wozniacki rallied with each other on the tracks of one of Madrid's busiest Metro stations; Chamartin.

 

Dementieva, the Tour's number 3 player commented: "I never thought I'd be playing tennis on an underground track! It was a unique way to prepare for the Madrid Open."

 

Dementieva's opponent, world number 11, Caroline Wozniacki said, "Taking tennis to new audiences is really important in keeping the game alive. Playing tennis while commuters go about their daily business was a new experience and really fun."

 

A specially built court placed on the unused track of the Chamartin Metro station for the players to rally with each other underground gave a once in a lifetime view for all onlookers. A team of workers built the 20 x 6 meter court with layher (a special type of iron) and wood which was painted to look like a real tennis court.

 

It's good to see that there is still marketing at work in the telecom space.

A colleague sent me this item today:

 

 

 

 

 

TMC's Tom Keating referenced that legal action in his blog back in June 2007. And a month later, in July 2007, TMCnet editors were still on the case covering the evolving story, countersuits and all.

 

Well it looks like things have finally been resolved.

 

All's well that ends well.

I saw a MarketWatch bulletin with the headline Tellabs, Alcatel-Lucent are top telecoms and it got me thinking about Nortel, who was all over the news this week with reports of its imminent demise, as competitors were ready to tear the company apart and walk away with various parts of the business.

 

MarketWatch was simply reporting that Tellabs (the subject of a cover story in the next issue of NGN magazine - see here for Rich Tehrani's meeting takeaway)

 

Tellabs gained more than 7% and Alcatel-Lucent rose 4% to lead telecommunications stocks in trading earlier this week based on Tellabs' results indicated a possible recovery in the networking sector and Alcatel-Lucent's announcement of multiyear contracts worth $1.7 billion to supply equipment in China.