LIVEOAK FIBER
The Creative Competition:
How Creative Strategy Transforms a Local Internet Company into an Unforgettable Challenger Brand
Project Type Marketing
Role Creative Director
Tools Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop,
After Effects, Premiere Pro
The Project
By embracing humor, a chaotic-good tone of voice, and a deep love of Mothman & all things unhinged, I helped LiveOak Fiber establish its place as a main competitor against national internet companies without trying to outspend them.
THE CHALLENGE
When I first started working with LiveOak Fiber (LOF), the creative was very tactical, very transactional. It focused primarily on generic audiences with the main messaging being, “We have internet! Get our internet,” and featured random images of landmarks and families. It’s important to note that these ads are not bad, but they do not stand out.
The main competitors for LOF are national, multi-billion dollar corporations. And, unfortunately, national brands do not need to fight for brand recognition. They simply get customers by existing in the right places. So our job wasn’t to try to become bigger or spend more than them. LiveOak needed to become impossible to ignore.
THE STRATEGY
Chaotic-Good | Irreverent | Wholesome
I saw the opportunity to push LiveOak into a humorous tone of voice while still maintaining its core identity of being a local-first, community-focused brand. Additionally, as a challenger brand, LOF needed to play the offense as well, demonstrating why their competitors are a worse choice AND that LiveOak is a million times better.
This helped to distinguish LOF’s three main pillars to focus our campaigns on:
1. F* Big Internet
2. Local Legends
3. Problems-to-Solve
F* Big Internet focuses on all the problems Big Internet has and continues to perpetuate. This includes pointing out random fees, using a streaming service or mobile phone line as a Band-Aid for genuine problems, and their lacking customer service.
Local Legends highlights not only their locally based customer service agents and authentic connections, but also LiveOak’s involvement in the community, such as creating a variety of outreach projects. This is also a great place to have area specific creation like hurricane season ads or tourism based ads in the summer.
Problems-to-Solve is exactly what it sounds like: here are your problems, here’s how we solve them. This pillar focuses on the variety of problems people experience with other companies such as lag and latency issues.
By utilizing these pillars, I was able to create a cohesive brand that actually speaks to what potential customers want from brands: to be heard, to be seen, to be cared about.
THE CAMPAIGNS
F* Big Internet Campaigns
Local Legends Campaigns
Problems-to-Solve Campaigns
Promo Campaigns
Memes
