At putitout we like to know our digital communication platforms work, and when we help change the laws of the land because of them, well then we know know our digital communication platforms work. Read on, dear reader.

 

Our good friends at Portland were approached by their client, Virgin Media, to rally support against the current sale of broadband internet and its regulation.  Virgin, having a superior average speed rate were lobbying the Advertising Standards Authority to change the law on the sale of broadband to average speed rather than 'up to' speed.

 

We were involved in the campaign from an early stage, invited to share our ideas of the best mechanics to drive positive sentiment, get visitors to the site educated quickly and illicit the response of a signature on a digital petition.

 

Once the concept was signed off we had a short window in which to deliver all IA, creative concepts and individual assets, then get them signed off by Virgin Media. We then built a highly accessible site (one of the stakeholders was running IE6), all within a 3 week window.

 

We were responsible for all technical communications with Ookla who were the Virgin Media sanctioned technology provider providing the 'speed test' element of the site, a vital part of the process to inspire the visitor to sign the petition.

 

The site launched on the 18th November and garnered 3,000 signatures within the first week, it ended up with 15,000 signatures in total. We also delivered phase 2 (a CMS to allow Portland to add news stories).

 

The movement to Stop the Broadband Con, was fittingly:

 

www.stopthebroadbandcon.org  (now defunct)

 

Following the success of the campaign much of the functionality has been stripped away and the site will be phased out before too long.

 

The BBC wrote a an article about the success of the campaign quoting the effectiveness of the site, and outlining the change in the law that took place because of it:

 

'From April next year, providers will no longer be able to advertise maximum speeds for net packages unless 10% of customers can actually get them.'

 

Read the full article here