Rogers announces Canada’s largest 5G network

September 16th, 2020 | Nicole Bond

With limited 5G marketing before September, Rogers focused its claims on being the first to provide 5G coverage in Canada. After expanding its 5G network to cover an additional 50 cities and towns, the carrier is letting consumers know it’s now “Canada’s Largest 5G Network,” while continuing to underscore its overall network reliability. 

Rogers tied together claims as the “first” and “largest” 5G network in Canada in recent social media activity. Following its #Rogers5G expansion announcement, the provider took to its owned social media channels to share the news with consumers. This tweet called attention to Rogers’ focus on connectivity, backed by the power of 5G, with creative imagery to subtly highlight the capabilities of Rogers’ expanding network. 

Rogers ramped up its paid search spend on 5G-related terms in August, in order to build awareness around its 5G network. As conversations around 5G heated up, so did Rogers’ spend on 5G-related keywords, reaching an all-time high in August at $3.9K. Rogers’ SEM strategy captures consumers at the top-of-funnel, awareness stage of their 5G journey by allocating spend to more generic, less product specific terms.  

What we think 

Rogers’ message may lose impact, as its competitor claims the same. As Rogers has been spreading the word about its 5G network being Canada’s largest, Bell Canada has continued to proclaim the same.

• On its website, Bell explains its claim is “based on total square kilometers of coverage on the shared 5G network available from Bell vs. Rogers’ 5G network.”
• Rogers’ site explains, “Largest based on total square kilometers of Rogers 5G coverage compared to published coverage of other national networks.”

The dueling claims risk confusing consumers, if not undermining the message altogether for both carriers.