O2: Oops [image]

Credits & Description:

Brand: O2
Product: Free Screen Replacement
Entrant Company: VCCP United Kingdom
Agency Network: Chime
Client: O2
Creative Director: Jim Capp
Copywriter: Kieran Knight
Art Director: Veryan Prigg
Production Company: VCCP Kin
Account Director: Sophie Hanson
Account Manager: Anna Fotheringham
Agency Producer: Cydney Chadwick
Designer(s): Adam Edwards
Photographer: Luke Kirwan
Typographer: Adam Edwards
Business Director: Katya Obolensky
Executive Creative Director: Darren Bailes
Media: Havas Media
Synopsis
Smashed screens – it’s a big problem. A £1billion a year repair bill problem. Nearly half of smartphone users have had a smashing time they’d rather avoid. That’s 20million “oh shit” moments. We’ve all been there.
O2 listened and took a stand. They made free screen repairs a core market proposition for the first time, anywhere. A big deal in “Telcoland” where brands need to connect emotionally with their customers, be seen to understand and add value to their lives above and beyond tech.
The timing of the campaign was consciously aimed to break immediately before the new iPhone launch. O2 were the only network offering free repair with the new contract as part of its “Oops” tariff. This competitive advantage message deserved a big platform.
Three core objectives:
• Prime market ahead of the iPhone launch to favour 02.
• Drive IPhone upgrades.
• Drive uptake of “Oops Tariff”.
Strategy
Say it without saying it? We used media to communicate this feeling through breaking formats in right fit locations.
02 told us that almost all phone breakages happen in high traffic public spaces. Busy spaces where people are distracted and without a soft surface to break the fall of an errant handset. That’s why OOH led our campaign.
We used Smartsteps Telefonica data to identify mobile usage hotspots where we saw high multitasking and crowd volumes. These were our “smashed screen blackspots”.
But we were worried that just using existing inventory was not going to be remarkable enough for such a remarkable deal. So we played both within and outside of the normal rules. In a market where OOH inventory is rigorously maintained, suppliers took a lot of convincing to let us also break the rules with their precious kit – actually just break their precious kit.
Relevancy
A groundbreaking media led campaign where the media became the message.
To sell benefits of broken screen insurance - part of a new O2 tariff at the launch of the new iPhone - we used outdoor to evoke that ‘oh shit’ feeling when accidents happen.
We needed to prompt that emotion in consumers before overtly going for sales. We convinced media to let us tamper with their precious stock – from “breaking” poster sites to getting London Underground to agree to us digitally smashing station screens – a UK first. We made people stop and stare and think about insurance.
Outcome
We smashed it. A high impact two-week UK-wide OOH campaign in August hit 33.8M consumers 250M times. In September Underground, press and digital formats were deployed.
Against objectives:
Prime market ahead of iPhone launch
• Brand love increased +12%,
• Customer care and value perceptions +7%
• Consideration rose +3% among prospects ahead of our competitors
Drive IPhone upgrades
• Oops! drove 170k phone upgrades (32% above target)
Drive uptake of ‘Oops’ tariff (20GB +)
• 68% of customers moved to our ‘Oops Tariff” versus a 49% target
• The campaign drove 70% of period sales and an incremental 17m revenue Y-O-Y
So effective was the campaign in evoking a feeling above and beyond delivering a message that people took to social media to report our staged breakages. We got 190m earned reach impressions, over 3,000 social mentions and calls to contractors reporting broken panels.
Execution
Where phones were most likely to be dropped such as shopping malls, music venues or during the commuter rush we crafted bespoke executions for dramatic effect.
Within existing formats we:
• Created DEPs in the Underground. We ‘rolled’ phones down escalator panels, the device bouncing down the screens as commuters descended.
• Used lenticular motion-detection technology on six sheets so that screens “cracked”, triggered by commuters.
• Smashed the Waterloo Motion, the UKs biggest screen.
We persuaded contractors to let us meddle with their inventory.

We:
• Took billboards off their hinges so huge posters were hanging lop-sided off their fittings….we even dressed some with “hazard” cones to add realism.
• Created fake billboards - fitted them and then smashed them up.
• Created a dedicated campaign for music venues; known to be the highest density of phone breakages anywhere due to a perfect storm of hand waving and alcohol.
Campaign Description
We all know what that moment of breaking feels like. And we all probably say and feel exactly the same thing “Oh Shit”….or “Oops” if mum’s in earshot.
The challenge we set ourselves was how we could use media to evoke that feeling in people. The media itself was our star, not just a vehicle for a sales message. It was about communicating a feeling first and foremost.
O2 wanted to go big – it was an industry first. But they needed to say it without saying it. We needed to make the media the message to drive talkability and sales.
So we set out to smash things up – sometimes literally.
We combined the use of technology to show screens smashing on key sites with physically “breaking” or creating broken fake billboards to get people to stop, mutter their own “oops” and remind them it could happen to them.