A mixed media advertising campaign has just launched for a new business-to-business mobile communications network called Mike.

Aimed at business, industrial and commercial workgroup users in the Quebec City to Windsor, Ont. corridor, Mike works over a digital wireless network. It integrates a mobile phone, group- and private-call radio, and alphanumeric paging/messaging in a single portable handset.

Rick Seifeddine, director of communications and advertising for Clearnet, Mike’s parent company, says the new service is being marketed to potential users as a way to save time and money.

Seifeddine says a typical Mike user might be a transportation firm, a real estate company with a wide network of agents in the field, a construction company or even a film producer who needs to talk to cast and crew at the same time.

A consumer version of Mike, known generically as pcs (Personal Communications Services), is due to launch next year from Clearnet. Similar services are expected from Clearnet’s competitors.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission granted Pickering, Ont.-based Clearnet a pcs licence in December, 1995.

Seifeddine says it was a calculated decision by Clearnet to move first into the business-to-business market, where Mike has no equal or nearly equal competitor. Clearnet had begun building its business-to-business network before the crtc gave the go-ahead for pcs.

As for the name Mike, Seifeddine says it was adopted as a way to put to rest user fear about the technology behind the service.

Clearnet’s ad campaign for Mike comes from Taxi Advertising and Design in Toronto and Montreal and is being executed in English and French. Media is being handled by Media Experts in Toronto. Mosaic Direct, also in Toronto, is the direct mail agency.

Heather Fraser, managing director of Taxi in Toronto, says Mike teasers appeared in print starting Sept. 25. The tv began Sept. 28 on stations from Quebec City to Windsor.

Fraser says an insert will appear in dailies bolstered by some regular print advertising.

A direct mail drop is set for October, as are ads for industrial and commercial trade titles.

The thrust of the Mike campaign is to create ‘broad awareness’ of Clearnet, she says.