2023 Silver Customer Acquisition

Agency: Ogilvy UK

Client: Vodafone

Entry Title: Life Interrupted: Challenging Broadband Apathy

Executive Summary

Brits think broadband providers are equally bad and paying for ‘reliable’ connectivity is money wasted. Communications needed to shake consumers out of their inertia, getting them to face up to poor speed, sub-par service, and high prices they blithely.

Strategy

Ogilvy UK set its sights on Vodafone stealing from bigger broadband players. But UK consumers were apathetic about switching, despite two thirds of households viewing broadband as being as essential as gas or electricity.

To overcome entrenched inertia, the agency needed to find a way to tell them they weren’t getting a good deal but without starting a price war. Leaning into ‘loss aversion’ was key: the risk was staying with their current provider, not with switching.

The campaign got people thinking about the moment that disconnection puts their life on hold: ‘Life interrupted’.

Creativity

The campaign combined the moment of fear with the gut-wrenching regret felt from making a bad choice. The creative idea asked people to project themselves into the future, showing them what would happen if they stuck with unreliable broadband. “When we suffer the buffer, our life is disrupted.”

The work focused on the critical - and humorous - broadband moments we take for granted, like watching cookery or make-up tutorials. In their moment of jeopardy, Vodafone steps in to challenge consumers to reflect on their broadband choice: “A bad time for the broadband to go down?” To overcome risk aversion, a compelling case for the benefits of switching was made around reliability and value.

Results

The campaign helped Vodafone become the credible home broadband challenger it set out to be.

In the first month of the campaign, new household acquisitions increased by 25%. And during the first three months, incremental acquisitions increased by 55% from the previous quarter, reaching a campaign Q2 target of 100,000 in less than seven weeks.

Consideration grew by +16% among people who recognised the campaign, which also shifted awareness that Vodafone provides broadband.

Contributors

Carat UK