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EarthLink
Defeating Spam & Surpassing the Competition
In 2003, EarthLink, the third-largest Internet Service Provider (ISP), was determined to achieve parity with AOL and MSN, its competitors whose name and size earned them continuous media coverage. Capitalizing on EarthLink's history of championing spam fighting, its introduction of spamBlocker, the most innovative spam solution offered by a major ISP, and EarthLink’s legal injunction against a notorious spam offender, MS&L's global technology team developed a multi-phased communications campaign to help change media perception regarding who the most significant ISP players were. By elevating the “hot” industry spam issue to a major corporate platform, journalists were forced to recognize EarthLink’s leadership position and ownership of the spam issue.
EarthLink’s spam efforts were covered by 21 of the top 50 newspapers; total PR campaign media coverage vaulted to more than 552 million consumer impressions. The campaign exceeded objectives as more than 150,000 copies of EarthLink’s spamBlocker were downloaded prior to the advertising launch. Making the campaign even more of a victory, competitors jumped on the “anti-spam bandwagon” and tried to compete, but were consistently portrayed by the media as playing “catch up.”