NBN Co's image problem

How do you sell a $36 billion infrastructure project when you don't believe in marketing?

Gary McLaren should have known better addressing the Churchill Club, a Melbourne-based group of technologists, entrepreneurs and innovators, and telling them it wasn't up to NBN Co to describe the opportunities presented by the network, or indeed market it. Perhaps he took the Club's tagline of "No hype, no spin, no PowerPoint" a little too literally.

McLaren, who is chief technology officer with NBN Co was part of a panel asked to discuss the opportunities presented by the NBN, but he was quick to point out NBN Co is an engineering company that doesn't see its job as one of marketing or spin, and in fact was looking forward to the time when it could “slink below the radar”, once the political controversy surrounding the project has died down.

The problem is, as more than one audience member pointed out, NBN Co is in the political spotlight and while it may like to describe itself as an engineering company, NBN Co is in the business of selling an idea, and indeed a dream, to the population.

McLaren was forced to concede there's currently a “big vacuum” when it comes to selling the benefits of the project, telling Technology Spectator “We are working through what our role is versus what the government's role is”.

“We do recognise that we have to take a role that actually does go into how we indirectly influence the development of applications,” McLaren said, but added “It's something that hasn't been a big focus within the company”.

NBN Co would clearly much prefer the service providers take the marketing lead, and that's likely to be how things work in the future, but in the interim no-one seems willing to market the NBN, and it's starting to show.

As a major infrastructure developer, perhaps NBN Co should be looking to Queensland Rail, MAp Airports or Infigen Energy for inspiration.

Big infrastructure projects aren't sexy – they typically involve big machinery, holes in the ground and a lot of dirt. And yet that's the very stuff you see on the front cover of the shiny and slick annual reports of major mine, road and airport owners around the world.

NBN Co's only shareholder may be the government, but that shouldn't stop it telling us how its infrastructure is being built (there's some impressive numbers in there at least), or what its vision is for future applications.

NBN Co saw fit to hire a marketing manager in January. It must have been a frustrating six months for Tim Smith, made even more so by last month's major management shake-up that saw the appointment of a chief communications officer that will oversee what NBN Co calls a “public information campaign to inform and educate” on the NBN rollout. Kieren Cooney won't kick off his role with NBN Co until November, so it's unlikely we'll see any real marketing effort from NBN Co until next year.

In the meantime NBN detractors have had a head start, and the government remains distracted with pushing through policies that are much less popular than the NBN.

Even fans of the NBN expect more from NBN Co. When McLaren pulled out the modem-like grey box we'll eventually all be plugging in to access some of the world's fastest internet, last week's audience was less than impressed.

“For $36 billion I look at that box and think surely I can get something more sexy,” said one.