Digital News South Africa

UUNET SA's world first online streaming advertising campaign a success

At the beginning of the World Cup Cricket tournament, UUNET SA launched a world first in terms of advertising, with its real-time online streaming advertiments.

Through the duration of the tournament the organisation committed to running a 2MB line from Johannesburg connecting with Cape Town, Botswana and Namibia enabling live streaming Webcast advertisements from UUNET offices around Africa during the cricket matches, which was achieved with great success.

"This campaign not only demonstrated the power of our technology and network capabilities, but is also showcased the strength of an online streaming experience," says Jeff Fletcher for UUNET SA. "For too long the industry has questioned the proficiency of this technology, however, the UUNET advertising campaign has shown that it is possible to achieve true quality and value via Internet streaming."

Internet streaming is a relatively new advent in South Africa; often the robust nature and stability of a network are cited as hindrances to ensuring the success of the process. However, throughout the World Cup cricket tournament, UUNET SA showcased a real-time advertisment during every game through this technology without incident. "This incredible uptime is not only due to the power of our network, but also the dedication and determination of the team at UUNET," adds Fletcher.

Customer and industry feedback on the advertisements has been very encouraging, with people responding to the spontaneous nature of the campaign. "Whilst the campaign has shown the strength of our technology offering, it has also provided us with some intangible benefits," adds Fletcher. "Staff morale has certainly increased due to the interactive nature of the content of the advertisements, and pride in our brand has certainly been an added benefit."

Based on the incredible success of the World Cup Cricket advertising campaign, UUNET SA has made this technology available to its customers. "UUNET SA not only recognises the success of this technology but we also realise that media streaming has is an attractive service offering for business communications. Therefore, our customers can be assured of receiving the most effective and reliable streaming communication service available in South Africa and Africa through our UUstream offering," says Fletcher. "Webcast is live real time broadcasting and therefore represents the perfect solution for services that rely on instant processing such as the relaying of financial results, conference outlay, product launches, training, audio broadcastings, news alerts and more relaxed activities such as a sports event or even a music concert."

UUNET SA, a WorldCom company, is Southern Africa's only pan-African provider of Internet-based network services and is the largest global carrier of Internet traffic. The company provides Internet connectivity and corporate network services to major corporations as well as access services to Internet Service Providers.

All UUNET SA products and services are delivered within the required regulatory conditions.

For more information please visit the UUNET SA Website on www.uunet.co.za.

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