2023 Gold Utilities and Telecommunications

Agency: BBH and Essence Mediacom

Client: Tesco Mobile

Entry Title: Making mobile more supermarket

Executive Summary

When Tesco Mobile launched, it was born different: half-supermarket and half-mobile. But it had become undifferentiated in the minds of customers, affecting future growth for the business. This is how the brand reclaimed its difference.

Strategy

Tesco Mobile set out to drive reappraisal, grow consideration, grow penetration and grow its customer base.

The target audience was Tesco shoppers, those most likely to consider Tesco Mobile as a telco provider, due to their pre-existing relationship—but also people with growth potential, as 91% of Tesco customers were going elsewhere for their mobile contract.

The one reason they liked Tesco was the same reason that was putting them off Tesco Mobile: its ‘supermarket-ness’. Because would a supermarket know about mobile?

Creativity

The provider decided to proudly embrace supermarket-ness, telling the nation Tesco Mobile is great at mobile because it's half-supermarket, not despite it.

The team turned this difference into a new creative platform: Supermarket Mobile. Two years of comms followed that:

Introduced the power of combining the best of supermarket and mobile by creating an actual ‘mobile supermarket’—a glossy, hyper-real store with a vast choice of handsets, unbeatable value on prices and honest, down-to-earth colleagues.

Explained helpfulness stood behind supermarket mobile, by telling the story of a humble hero—a Tesco Mobile trolley—going on epic missions to help save customers money.

Demonstrated the point throughout with comms that apologised on behalf of competitors.

Results

Two years of Supermarket Mobile work made a difference for Tesco Mobile across all objectives:

Reappraisal: during the same time period, key brand perceptions that reinforced Tesco Mobile’s helpfulness increased. Trustworthiness rose by 44%, quality & reputation by 38% and customer first by 18%.

Consideration: with the knock-on effect of driving a substantial increase in spontaneous brand consideration, which grew by 38% between 2021 and 2022.

The Team

BBH - Uche Ezugwu, Creative Director - Holly Ripper, Managing Director, Sian Richards - New Business Director - Keren Jones, Account Director - Dean Matthewson, Strategy Director - Laura Casado, Cisa Senior Strategist

Tesco Mobile - Rachel Swift, CMO - Emma Herridge, Head of Brand and Advertising - Zea Westwick, Comms Planning & Campaigns Lead