Case Study: T-Mobile
How do you rejuvenate
your brand?
The challenge
T-Mobile came to us to help bring their brand strategy to life. Their positioning was all about ‘Life’s for sharing, and our insight into the cultural context of sharing and how it could be communicated differently in the future gave them a way to stand out from other network providers.
What did we do?
Using a data set of communications drawn from across the whole category (competitors and T-Mobile), our analysis identified that the primary cultural narrative of ‘sharing’ employed by all the brands was about exclusivity: highly predictable, routine exchanges between closed groups of family and friends. This was typically visualised by small groups of people in conversation in interior settings and domestic spaces.
Having analysed the telecoms category, we then moved on to investigate the changing meaning of ‘sharing’ for the 18 – 30 demographic in the UK. We discovered that emergently sharing was expressed as a narrative of’ inclusivity’; highly spontaneous, short-lived, emotionally-charged exchanges between large groups of strangers. This was typically visualised as unexpected interactions by people in exterior settings and transit spaces.
Where did it lead?
Drawing on our recommendations, T-Mobile created the ‘Life’s for Sharing’ campaign which included the very successful Liverpool Street Station ‘Dance’ execution. As a result of this campaign the brand established itself as a relevant, differentiated player in the UK and US, with sales +49% & share +6% as well as an ROI +146%.