Verizon launches initiative in DC aimed at younger consumers

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is rolling out a marketing and awareness campaign for its FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services aimed at Echo Boomers, the technologically savvy generation of American consumers considered most likely to eschew pay-TV services, some analysts say.

The "FiOS 50" initiative, aimed at 25- to 39-year-olds in the Washington, D.C. metro area, launched this week, the company said in its blog. Verizon said that "over the next two months, older Gen Xers and Millenials in the D.C. metro area will be hard pressed to NOT see and hear a flurry of information about FiOS at places the age group know well -- shopping malls, commuter stations, health clubs, juice bars, restaurants, bars and movie theatres."

The telco said it was targeting the group because it regard "the Internet and TV as their primary source of entertainment and information."

Verizon said it would rely on social media as it tries to understand "these hip, young trendsetter(s)" and ascertain why they "often spend more than half their day surfing the Web."

The FiOS 50 will consist of a list of the 50 hottest, hippest, must visit places to go in the D.C. Metro area. Verizon will sweeten the deal by offering exclusive FiOS offers and discounts when they mention FiOS at the locations on the list.

The company is hoping to steal share from competing cable operators like Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Cox and to make a bigger push into the MDU market.

For more:
- see this Verizon post
- read FierceCable's take

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