Hauptman & Partners Communications and Michael Ornsky & Co., both in Portland, Maine, have teamed up to produce a campaign for Time Warner Cable's Road Runner Pro, a high-speed Internet service sold to businesses.
The effort, which broke in Portland and will soon appear in additional Time Warner markets, consists of four 30-second television spots as well as radio and print ads. Spending was not disclosed.
The Stamford, Conn.-based client plans to introduce the Road Runner Pro service in new markets with the campaign originally created for Portland. Those new markets include upstate New York; San Diego; Honolulu; Tampa, Fla.; El Paso, Texas; and Bend, Ore.
The commercials feature a male employee entertaining himself--tossing crumpled papers at a basketball hoop, playing solitaire, sharpening a stack of pencils--while waiting for his computer to download a file via his Internet service. The message is that Road Runner Pro will increase employee productivity. Each ad concludes with a voiceover asking, "What are you waiting for?"
"The way we're trying to communicate how fast [Road Runner Pro] is to show really how slow the [competition] is," said Jim Hauptman, who acted as creative director and copywriter on the campaign. "It's a lot easier to show how slow something is than how fast. Until you use a cable modem and see for yourself, there's really no way to show it."
To appeal to businesses, Hauptman & Partners added the "Pro" to the name Road Runner, which was initially launched for consumers.
The shop is handling media chores for Maine only. Time Warner will use its franchisees or other agencies in other markets, said Hauptman.
Time Warner executives could not be reached by press time.
Hauptman & Partners, which works on a project basis for Reebok's factory stores, Turtle Fur and L.L. Bean, won the account this spring.