EE was the most lauded mobile network in the UK, with 7 years of winning an independently judged best mobile network award. This was based on launching 4G at their heart. A huge competitive advantage on the broader network marketplace.

However, over time, this competitive advantage eroded. With every network claiming superiority, so their lead message was getting lost in this noise. What’s more their new product 5G, wasn’t getting the same positive reception as its predecessor.

Given that, we were asked to bolster 5G rollouts and ensure our number one network credentials both within customer perception and volume sales. Our objective was simple, stand out from the crowded space using our direct channels and show a real customer experience that 5G gives you.

Our idea was to demonstrate what being on EE meant and felt like, experienced through the eyes of influential customers. Real people who resonated with our base. The real people using the network in brilliant ways to make their everyday extraordinary. We told the stories of sneakerheads, roller skating teachers, spoken word poets and culturally diverse gamers.

We kicked off this approach, with each one asking – “We’re 5GEE…are you?” This was brought to life through a range of films, housed around our base’s passion points.

When first briefed by EE, we did a bit of digging: What did people and our customers really think of networks?

To our dismay, the answer was – not a lot. EE’s primary differentiator, 5G, was very new. Shockingly, even potential 5G customers from our base, when surveyed, didn’t see the value in our newest service, and didn’t see much of a difference from being on 4G.

And with a lot of miss-understanding from our customers, then a lot of miss-information circulating online, it became obvious we needed to explain the long-term real benefits of our network - to give our base a better understanding.

This sharpened our strategic focus. We needed those people who’d most readily benefit from our services to do the talking for us. Tapping into Herd theory, we looked for people who embodied the sweet spot between cultural resonance, new tech use and personal networks.

By creating a peer-to-peer programme that dramatized the benefits in the real world. We embedded 5G’s true potential throughout our direct communications.

From redesigning our Early Life programme to priming our base ahead of different smartphone launches, the 5G Stories execution infiltrated every element of our customer communications. From email, MMS, and social before directing customers to the EE website where they could sign up to 5GEE and make their own stories.

Creating an ongoing story of social proof for the public to tap into.

EE’s CEO Mark Allera, had announced to the EE group at the start of 2020 that he expected 1 million 5G phone sales by 2021. With this target in the back of our minds, we knew rethinking customer communications was on the right path, when sales sky-rocketed to 2.5 million within our existing customer base alone by the end of 2020.

By communicating the feeling of being an EE customer, our comparatively small-spending campaign has also achieved some other big results.

• 5GEE Benefit awareness was raised 3 pts from the previous year (2020 to 2021).

• We saw a massive 29x growth in 5GEE usage from April last year (2020 – May 2021).

• And most importantly we saw a 20x growth in 5GEE customers using the 5GEE network.

Meaning showcasing our customers has had a massive impact on the brand and the telecom industry.