Question: How do you launch a new brand, (EE) and a new technology (4G) differentiating against four established brands?
Answer: Demonstrate that a faster network can change your life. Whatever you want to do, with EE ‘Now you can’. We hit our millionth customer four months ahead of schedule, and the 2 millionth five months later.
7.5M - Number of customers migrated onto 4G
31% - Rise of consideration after 5 weeks
We reduced the complexity of the launch to two strands. First, start with the core product feature that “4G is the fastest mobile internet in the UK”. Second, make it relevant to what people actually do with their mobile devices.
Our insight was that existing smartphone users didn’t need educating about what the mobile internet could do, they needed to be shown that what they wanted to do was now possible. So the strands came together under a single thought: with the fastest mobile internet ‘Now you can’.
But people had to experience the speed of our new network to believe they needed it -participation is more powerful than persuasion. So everything we created, from mail pieces to digital experiences to retail, enabled our audience to interact with EE and 4G.
We delivered the entire suite of content and communications to talk to 27 million existing customers, engage with 3,000 partners and retailers (eg Carphone Warehouse), equip 300 sales people and to refit 700 stores – all in less than 120 days.
Within 5 weeks, consideration was at the same level as T-Mobile, at 31%. Footfall across the estate increased to 750k per week. We hit our millionth customer four months ahead of schedule, and the 2 million mark five months later. As at October 2014, EE had exceeded the 7.5 million mark.