Telus knows a thing or two about keeping it fresh. After 10 years the company is still finding ways to engage consumers with its very familiar “critters” advertising while at the same time smartly reaching out to a whole new target market with its latest “fat free” offering, Koodo Mobile.
Early in the year Telus launched a new line of smartphones with a campaign from longtime agency Taxi that asked consumers questions such as: “How would you break up?” for example, with check boxes for “Text,” “E-mail,” “Call,” or “Messenger.”
“It got people to stop and think about how they communicate and it got them to engage with the brand,” says Telus’s vice-president of marketing communications Tammy Scott. And what many of them would have realized is that the technology is not hard to use nor is it appropriate only for business people.
Telus took a decidedly different tack however later in the year with Ron Ronn, a fictitious singing star-wannabe featured in 10 30-second spots during Canadian Idol. The likable loser promoted his self-made national tour with the help of Telus smartphones—BlackBerry Curve and HTC Touch—and their various applications.
“When you do product placement… you’ve got to blend it into the show,” says Scott. “We were able to tell a more in-depth story than with regular TV ads.”
While being a pop-culture hit is noteworthy, for Telus the strength of its marketing is also reflected in the numbers. Telus subscribers increased by a record 176,000 in the second quarter of 2008 (third quarter results were not available at press time), accounting for almost half of the 359,000 subscribers added by the big three providers—Rogers, Bell and Telus—combined.
That growth is partly attributed to the March launch of Koodo, a new brand targeting the youth discount market.
“They’ve done an extremely good job in establishing an instant brand in Koodo,” says Iain Grant, of telecom consultancy SeaBoard Group. “They are speaking to needs that many Canadians have felt and their ability to do this has really resonated.”
“Chief Koodo Officer” Kevin Banderk says the company deliberately honed in on a segment of Generation Y fed up with fees, long-term contracts and paying for services they don’t use. Koodo reached out with simple phones designed for talk and text services only, with plans starting as low as $15.
“Finding a way to speak to [Generation Y] in a fun, irreverent way was a challenge,” says Lance Martin, creative director at Taxi 2, which helped devise the “Fat-free mobility” positioning that tapped into young people’s ironic appreciation for all things ’80s—in this case, the exercise phenomenon 20 Minute Workout.
“It cut through, it was trendy without trying to be cool,” says Banderk of the eye-catching creative. “A lot of wireless brands try to talk to everyone, but we wanted to be more targeted in a way that was very straightforward, transparent and refreshing.”
The campaign included TV, radio, online, point-of-sale and out-of-home elements, as well as a Facebook application. And in Montreal, Koodo and Taxi 2 played games with subway riders by asking them “Where’s Koodo?” At touch-screen enabled kiosks, people searched for a “Koodo-ciser,” a fluorescent leotard-wearing athlete, hidden in an illustrated urban landscape, as they learned about Koodo’s nationwide talk-and-text rate plan.
“Part of our media tactic is to engage the community—that’s the best way to reach Gen Y,” says Banderk, adding consumers will see the fruition of its “Kick it like a Koodo-ciser” contest in a new holiday campaign. Hundreds of people submitted photos of themselves Koodo-cising and participated in street-level events in hopes of landing a starring role in the campaign.
The fact that Telus can generate such excitement with a new brand and constantly breathe new life in to a 10-year campaign for its flagship brand is testament to its relevance as a marketer.
“Good brands reflect popular culture, and great brands create popular culture,” says Scott.
