1800 Your Company Name Here Is The Future
A new marketing angle has put smiles on the dials of companies that have joined up, writes Brad Howarth.
BILL TYS would never have believed the impact a new phone number could have on his business.
However, the owner of Melbourne futon business Back to Bed says that since changing his number to 1800FUTONS he has been overwhelmed by the response.
«If I did a substantial ad campaign with 1800FUTONS — I don’t think I could handle the business,» Mr Tys says.
«Phone names» have been popular in the US for more than a decade but there are far fewer examples in Australia.
Regulatory changes, however, mean we may soon see a flood of new phone names hitting Australia, says Jack Singleton.
The son of ad man John Singleton and a successful advertising executive in his own right, Mr Singleton has launched the company Phone Name Marketing Australia to capitalise on what he sees as a new marketing phenomenon.
Phone Name has gained the rights to about 1000 of Australia’s 1300 and 1800 numbers in perpetuity. These numbers will be leased to other companies.
Singleton became interested in phone names in the mid-’90s while working in the US.
Companies can spend thousands of dollars a year trying to get people to remember their phone numbers, but a phone name uses existing brand knowledge, he says.
Research by US company Michael J. Motto Advertising found that companies using phone names drew 14 times more calls then those with regular numbers. Mr Singleton says his own research has shown phone names also increase response rates in Australia.
«Think of how many radio ads you listen to with phone numbers in them (but) you don’t remember any,» Mr Singleton says. «With phone names, the awareness of your number goes through the roof.»
Mr Tys says he has not measured the change in call rates since the number change, but knows the increase has been significant.
«If you have one of these names, and it’s a good one that describes the industry, you just control it all,» he says.
Several factors have contributed to the slow adoption of phone names in Australia. One reason is that, while the international community standardised letter placement in 1993, Australia took three years to follow suit.
«Between 1993 and 1996, all of the manufacturers who couldn’t sell their handsets in the US or Europe dumped them here,» Mr Singleton says.
«So when I came back to Australia in 1996 it was just a mess. There were six different forms of letter placements on number keys and there were some fixed lines that didn’t have letters at all.»
Most of those old handsets have been phased out. Almost all fixed-line phones and mobile handsets now comply with international alpha-numeric standards.
Also, changes to mobile networks allow phone names of up to 10 letters.
Mr Singleton says developing a phone name marketing company in Australia has involved a lot of effort. In the past, the Australian Communications Authority would release only limited blocks of 1300 and 1800 numbers, rather than allowing a company to request a number.
Years of lobbying by Mr Singleton helped persuade the authority to release all numbers in September last year.
Telstra has since created a phone name marketing service called 1300Australia.
Mr Singleton says his company has chosen the numbers it markets based on popular phrases, such as 1800DINE-IN, or brand names. Companies can lease numbers at a flat rate or for a small payment each time the number is dialled.
Last month, the owners of the Kingsleys Restaurants in Sydney adopted 1300KINGSLEYS for a central reservation system. The events and marketing manager of Kingsleys, Katie Graham, says the number stops clients becoming confused between the venues.
«It is really powerful when you can have an ad in the paper and just put 1300KINGSLEYS at the end of it,» she says.
However, Ms Graham says the system does have faults, as some mobile phones’ directory services cannot directly connect a caller to the 1300KINGSLEYS number.
This fault is expected to be corrected shortly.
Other quirks in the system include the fact that one phone name can spell between 729 and 4096 words, depending on the combination of numbers used. Hence, the combination 1800SPORTING (180077678464) could also spell 1800PROSTITUTE.
Phone Names is Australia’s leading provider of 1300 / 1800 phone numbers mixed with names. Their goal is to help businesses increase advertising response rates through the use of phone words. More information visit- http://www.phonenames.com.au/
The Age
By Brad Howarth
