2016 Bronze IT/Telecommunications

Agency RAPP UK

Client Virgin Media

Campaign summary A phone that we can’t name has 12 flavour settings and can walk your dog

Campaign overview

It’s hard to stand out as a small mobile operator with a limited budget when Apple releases its latest iPhone model.

So Virgin created #phonerumour to build conversations with a uniquely Virgin spin and tongue-in-cheek hints about the phone everyone was talking about, and amplifying them - and the Virgin name - across multiple channels.

Strategy

More than 40% of UK consumers use an iPhone, making a new model launch the biggest mobile event of the year.

Most customers wait for the new one to come out before they upgrade, so the first few weeks following the launch are hotly contested, with major players spending big. How could Virgin Media, a small mobile player with a limited budget, get its fair share?

By talking about iPhone before anyone else.

A teaser campaign helped Virgin punch above their weight. But networks and retailers aren’t allowed to show or use the iPhone’s name unless they use approved Apple words and images. It was impossible to talk about it before the launch... or was it?

Every Apple product launch is surrounded by rumours from a highly engaged audience so Virgin created a teaser campaign with their own tongue-in-cheek rumours.

Creativity

Consumers needed to know that the iPhone 6s would be available from Virgin Media on launch day.

But Virgin couldn’t name or show the phone.

Instead, art direction used iPhone style graphics and layouts. Creating #phonerumour, Virgin and RAPP crafted headlines suggesting weird and wonderful features that the new iPhone could have (in a parallel universe).

#phonerumours like ‘It’ll have a lickable touchscreen with 12 flavour settings’ were paid off with the #phonefact that ‘We’ll have it on the UK’s most flexible tariffs’.

Illustrations brought the rumours to life against Virgin Media’s trademark red background, amplified through all channels (press, digital display, retail stores, email and DM) with a call to action: ‘register your interest’.

The campaign asked the public for #phonerumours of their own to inform the creation of short-form animations of the favourites.

Results

Virgin wanted people to know they would have the new iPhone, and with more than eight million social impressions and over 900,000 engagements, this was a success in its own right.

Before the iPhone had even been officially announced Virgin had 3,313 registrations of interest. This contributed significantly to the total pre-order figure, which successfully reached 2,102 by the end of the campaign.

The campaign drove a 64% increase in sales of the iPhone year-on-year with 16,737 sales.

And this all happened while making the launch significantly more efficient than in previous years, reducing press cost per response by 65%, and digital cost per order by 51% year-on-year.

Team

Andrew Nicholls (Strategist) • Jen Musgreave (Planning Partner) • Tom Kennedy (Art Director) • Laura Fullerton (Copywriter) • Paul Lawrence (Designer) • Manuel Da Costa Campos (Senior Account Manager) • Sean Allen (Senior Account Manager) • Kieran Lawrence (Account Manag- er) • Cress Laing (Business Director) • Darryl Hayter (Associate Creative Director of Design) • Jon Leney (Creative Director) • Richard Donovan (Creative Director)