T-Mobile: The Dancing Wave of Sharing: A Campaign strategy to Remember

In 2008, the UK mobile telecommunications category was in the eye of the worst recession since the 1930s. T-Mobile wasn’t a popular name in the industry and hence it was facing diminishing returns in a contracting market. It could not win over the giant competitors; therefore they changed the rules of the game: use the recession to their advantage. ‘Life's for Sharing’ gave people something to celebrate and an experience they wanted to share. Their smart promotion strategy  led to extraordinary engagement and a ROI to remember and appreciate  despite the market recession.

The campaign generated £15M in incremental sales and a return on marketing investment of £1.46. 

Campaign Details

·         Title: T-Mobile: Life's for Sharing, even in a Recession

·         Advertiser: T-Mobile

·         Agency: Saatchi and Saatchi

·         Brand: T-Mobile

·         Campaign duration: January - March 2009

·         Campaign objective: Brand relaunch, reposition

·         Country: United Kingdom

·         Media budget (USD): $10-20 million

·         Media used: Cinema, Events, In-store, Internet search, Mobile, Newspapers (national), Newspapers (local), Online video, Public relations, Radio (national), Social media, Television (broadcast), Word of mouth

The Drive

During the recession they noticed some new trends:

·         More and more people sharing their lives through Social Media.

·         Mobile phones were ‘ushering’ in a new era of connection and openness.

·         Sharing was no longer closed between friends and family; but increasingly open between strangers and community.

·         The society was moving from “me” to a “we”.

·         Spontaneous gatherings and get-togethers were becoming more and more commonplace.

Capitalizing on all these new trends, they crafted the  strategy of not only to tell people about Life's For Sharing, but to celebrate and enable sharing and allow people to join in. a radical approach to brand communications was planned by creating an dramatic event that people just had to share. Reactions from people, TV journalists, press journalists, bloggers, radio callins, copy-catters and online tributes were aimed. ‘Let the dance begin’ was formed and the rest is a history.

The Idea

15th January. 11am : at Liverpool Street Station in London a single commuter started dancing. Moments later hundreds more joined in, including genuine members of the public. It was a beautiful and simple metaphor for the power of sharing, a collective act of defiance against the recession and the winter cold, an expression of shared hope that pointed to a better future. Eleven hidden cameras shot the ad in eleven takes which generated over six hours of film. A 3-minute TV commercial, aired within 36 hours, came out of that reel.At the event, on the spot vox pops was conducted with stunned London commuters, which became their radio ads. Several photographers were planted around the station, briefed to find iconic shots of commuters caught up in the event. The public at the event became the posters (48 sheets and 6 sheets), the direct press and even POP retail displays.

Role of Social Media: Any hype on the camping is forgotten if it became old news, this was highly realized by the marketers of T-Mobile and hence to avoid that social currency was used in this campaign. Sharing is instantaneous and compulsive. It is a wave of energy that ripples through social networks, spreading from one connector to the next. Unless the event was shared, the whole camping would have failed. It had to create a sudden burst of infectious energy. Minutes after it aired, Facebook groups started springing up. Youtube activity increased exponentially. And influential bloggers, like Perez Hilton picked it up. The internet was alive with activity, and the more people who saw it, the more they want to share it. A branded YouTube Channel, suitably called, Life's for Sharing was created. On the Channel people could see the dance and learn how to do it for themselves. People were later encouraged to upload their own efforts. Celebrities  participated in the dance and was posted on the channels. A regional dance tour, where groups of people spontaneously danced in shopping centers were arranged to hold the hype.

Once it was shared online, people started to copy it. People across the world including different age groups started dancing

Statistics: Dance had over 20 million hits on YouTube. 'Life's for Sharing' became the #2 most subscribed YouTube channel of all time in the UK (Events category) and #22 worldwide (Source: YouTube). The event inspired 68 Facebook groups, largest with over 4,500 members. Over 95,000 people downloaded the film via Bluetooth-enabled digital outdoor screens. This is the most popular Transvision Bluetooth campaign to date.

Result:

·  Brand Consideration Increased: Brand tracking research showed an increase in T-Mobile's share of brand consideration, from 15% in 2008 to 17% in 2009, which was more than giant competitors (source: Harris Interactive).Dance almost doubled the number of people actively searching for “T-Mobile” online, from 1.6M in 2008, to 2.2M in 2009.

·    Increased Customer Conversion :  Even during the recession, the campaign generated a huge increase in retail footfall to T-Mobile stores. Average weekly retail footfall increased to double. The campaign helped to drive up conversion rate as well. More of the people who went into a T-Mobile store actually purchased a contract.

·     T-Mobile customers became more loyal: Churn rates of T-Mobile fell as the customers became more loyal. In mobile industry the cost of acquiring a new customer is relatively higher than keeping old. It is therefore significant that churn rates for T-Mobile actually fell as customers became more loyal to the T-Mobile brand over the campaign period.

·     Contract sales beat the market: Even when the new T-Mobile contract sales were at a high in value (£30+) than during the same period the previous year. T-Mobile contract sales increased by 49% more than previous year where the  market growth rate only 1%.

·      Proportion of T-Mobile contract sales by price increased: despite the average revenue per user (ARPU) fell for all mobile networks between 2008 and 2009, T-Mobile’s revenue beat the market.

·      Cost per acquisition reduced to more than half: The campaign was not only effective, it was also efficient. The cost to T-Mobile of each new contract customer more than halved from 2008 to Dance in 2009.

Creating a buzz is essential for any business and what can play a better role than Social Media in doing such? It all started with the desire to give people hope in a time when the recession was at its worst and social media took it to the next level.  A powerful and wonderful statement about the indomitable spirit of people to overcome adversity was formed when everything else was in a depression mode! Now this is what I call the power of social media with a smart strategy. 

Do you see any drawback of this campaign?