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Less than a month after rival directory enquiry service 118 118 stormed to the top of the Adwatch table with 82% recall (Marketing, August 21), Conduit's 11 88 88 has done the very same thing, this time with 89% recall.

Not surprisingly, given that BT's 192 service was switched off on August 24, last month was one of intense activity among the companies fighting for a share of the UK's deregulated directory enquiries market. Indeed, Conduit spent about £4m of its £40m marketing budget in August alone.

The ads, by Partners BDDH, now known as Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper Partners, feature three people dressed up as the numbers 11, 88 and 88, dancing and singing the number on stage. There is no voiceover but the endline reads 'Half the price of BT Directory Enquiries'. In one execution they are also shown playing musical instruments while on stage.

This campaign follows launch work featuring the numbers as cartoon superheroes, with a voice-over saying 'We'll save you' and 'It's a job for 11 88 88'.

Neil Christie, marketing director at Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper Partners, says the creative strategy has focused on "number memorability and getting the number into people's heads, so that when they think about directory enquiries, they think 11 88 88. We have had a single-minded focus on the number and have used various techniques, such as repetition of the number, a jingle and stressing the reason why they should use it: that it is half the price of BT."

The cartoon superheroes have also re-appeared recently on TV. "When 192 was turned off, it was key to repeat the number and now there's more emphasis on the half-price message that is put across more in the superheroes ad," says Christie.

Now that BT has lost its monopoly of the market with the end of its 192 service, competition has been fierce, particularly between Conduit, The Number's 118 118 and BT's 118 500.

Conduit itself has been forced to alter the content of its advertising.

It has been fined £15,000 by the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (Icstis) over its pricing claims. The small print in its ads has subsequently been modified to say that it is half the price of BT's standard service.

Media for the campaign is through Media Planning Group.