Verizon Courts Apartment and Condominium Residents in Hyperlocal FiOS Campaign

NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's apartment and condominium residents have a lot going for them when it comes to enjoying technologies' riches.  To drive home the point, Verizon has introduced a new hyperlocal, multimedia marketing campaign aimed at trend-setting, young professionals in the New York, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles metropolitan areas who want cool residences, crazy-fast Internet speed and crystal-clear TV service.

"Some people think they have to live in a single family home to get the very best broadband and video entertainment services, but that's not true," said Pedro Correa, vice president of Verizon Enhanced Communities, a unit within Verizon focused on marketing the company's FiOS voice, high-speed Internet and TV services to tenants and property managers of multidwelling unit properties.

"Most 25- to 39-year-olds, who make up a significant portion of multidwelling unit tenants, are major users of social media and the Internet, and spend as much as 14 hours online per week," said Correa. "Given the importance that young professionals place on technology to get ahead at work while staying connected with friends, we want to help as many residents of multidwelling units as possible enjoy the borderless lifestyle FiOS offers."

Currently, Verizon FiOS services are already available to more than 2 million multifamily units, and growing, in parts of 12 states, and the District of Columbia.  About half of all Verizon's FiOS lines opened for sale this year will be in apartments and condos, reflecting the heightened importance of marketing the company's flagship wireline services delivered over a highly reliable and robust all-fiber-optic network to MDUs.

Inside the apartments and condos located in Verizon-served areas, Verizon offers a wide range of ultra-fast FiOS Internet at speeds including 25/25 megabits per second (mbps), 35/35 mbps and 50/20 mbps, as well as crystal-clear FiOS TV, which offers more than 35,000 video-on-demand titles.

With the FiOS Internet 35/35 mbps tier, consumers can upload 200 photos in one minute and download a two-hour standard definition DVD in less than six minutes, boosting productivity and saving time for other things.

The Hyperlocalization of FiOS and #musthavefios

Late last year, Verizon launched a hyperlocal marketing campaign in the Washington metropolitan area that helped showcase the value of using FiOS to the Generation X and Y crowd who live in, or are seeking to move into, MDUs that represent more than 20 percent of all residences served by Verizon in the D.C. metro area.

These trendsetting, "techknowledgeables" between 25 and 39 years of age bear some unique attributes, according to Verizon research:

• 45 percent are more likely than the average adult to consider the Internet as their primary source of entertainment.
• 20 percent have taken some of public transportation in the past month.
• 78 percent have seen a movie in the past 6 months.
• 33 percent go the gym 3-4 times a week.
• 64 percent like to dine out and socialize at bars, half of them with their friends.

Many of the hyperlocal campaign elements used during the D.C. metro pilot -- including immersive digital advertising combined with social media engagement, plus a concentrated presence of out-of-home advertising and local events with prospective customers -- will be on display in metro New York, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles.  In these highly competitive markets, Verizon will seek to reach young professionals in places where they spend much of their time – gyms, restaurants, bars, movie theatres, malls and transit centers.

In metro New York, the campaign will encompass parts of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx; parts of Long Island; the northern suburbs in Westchester and Rockland counties; and northern New Jersey communities.  The Philadelphia region campaign will focus on the northwestern suburbs chiefly located in Chester and Montgomery counties.

In North Texas, the emphasis will be on the northern suburbs of Dallas and Forth Worth, including more than a dozen communities such as Plano, Irving, Lewisville and Grapevine in parts of Tarrant, Denton, Dallas and Collin counties.  The Southern California focus will include beach communities stretching north of Malibu and south to Huntington Beach; parts of inland Ventura County, including Thousand Oaks; and parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties including Long Beach.  The Washington metro campaign will continue and includes a large swath of Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Northern Virginia, and Montgomery County in Maryland.

"We're dealing with a group of very active people who are heavily reliant on their wireless devices, and so we're offering compelling FiOS bundles of Internet and TV including some deals that waive activation fees and provide a free wireless router and premium video content," said Chris Anderson, director of consumer marketing for Verizon. "To make it easy for young professionals to find MDUs with FiOS, we've created a region-specific microsite at www.musthavefios.com that shows the MDUs where FiOS is available in metro New York, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C."

Through a variety of pioneering innovations, Verizon FiOS customers can fully maximize their broadband and video services.  Verizon provides next-generation interactive services, including Flex View and FiOS TV Online, which extend FiOS TV beyond the single family or MDU home to the Internet and a range of mobile devices; an advanced video operating system and viewer guide; and free interactive applications like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

With FiOS, customers can also receive Media Manager, which allows them to access on their TVs personal photos, music and videos from their computers; and In-Home Agent, which helps customers to diagnose and resolve service issues.

For the latest news, updates and information about FiOS TV, visit www.verizon.com/newscenter  and http://www.verizon.com/athomeblog.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with nearly 109 million total connections nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 194,000.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon