Challenge
When it comes to mobile handsets and contracts, consumers need to have a high awareness of network brands in order for them to want to join one. T-Mobile wanted to boost awareness across Eastern Europe during the run up to Christmas – a key time for mobile phone companies as around 30-40% of handset and contract sales take place during this period.
Focus groups told the brand that what people love about having a mobile phone is being able to share interesting or unexpected things that happen to them in their everyday lives. Such events embody T-Mobile’s ‘Life is for Sharing’ positioning and it concluded that the focus on sharing would be even more prevalent at Christmas.
Insight
T-Mobile found that its events conform to a number of key principles: they are fun, inclusive, participatory and create experiences that consumers want to share using their mobile phones. Critically it found that the events should also be technologically innovative and cutting edge to lend expert credibility to its brand. Its strategy, therefore, was to create something unique that would drive home its ‘sharing’ Christmas message.
Solution
Five huge Christmas boxes were built in Zagreb, Podgorica, Krakow, Skopje and Frankfurt. No one knew what was inside, but local media encouraged locals to gather at a set hour. At exactly the same time (6pm on November 17) all the boxes opened to show a full- size hologram of Mariah Carey. Once the concert started, everyone believed they were watching the real thing. Dancers performed on each stage and positioned a ‘prop’ in the audience to enable a seemingly genuine interaction to take place.
Only when she asked the audience if they “believed in magic” was the truth unveiled, after which Mariah disappeared in a shower of lights. This was when it became clear that it was more than just a regular performance.
All five screens were then connected so that every location could share the experience together. Finally, audiences in each location joined together with the holographic Mariah Carey to sing a Christmas carol – bringing the ‘Life’s for sharing’ message to all the five cities simultaneously.
To add to the festive feeling, T-Mobile provided a free app with a virtual candle which was held high by viewers during songs such as ‘Silent Night’ and made the virtual concert complete. The event was streamed live for those who couldn’t attend.
Results
12,000 people came to the five events and 27,000 more watched the live stream.
The candlelight app was downloaded more than 8,000 times in just 20 minutes.
T-Mobile exceeded sales targets for key products in Croatia by up to 60%.
In Hungary, sales of key products were more than 130% ahead of target.