Qwest Selects Bright Sun - Peter Kim Intends to Build Brand 'From Scratch'

By Stephen Levine





NEW YORK–Qwest Communications, a Denver-based telecommunications company that hopes to build the fifth major fiber optic network in the United States, has hired Peter Kim’s Bright Sun consultancy to plan its advertising and marketing.





Qwest president and chief executive officer Joe Nacchio, a former AT&T executive vice president whom Qwest hired in December, confirmed the move last week. ‘We need to get the brand established,’ Nacchio said. ‘Peter is helping me think that through.’





Neither Nacchio nor Kim would comment on billings, but Kim said there will be a ‘significant eight-figure’ ad budget at the startup.





Qwest currently provides long-distance telephone service to about 170,000 consumer, business and wholesale customers, but its real potential is in the nationwide fiber optic network it is building, Nacchio said.





Nacchio believes Qwest is more than just a telecommunications company that may one day rival its established competitors.