EE is the most lauded mobile network in the UK, with 7 years of winning the independently judged best mobile network. 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. Every network tried to claim superiority from ‘most reliable’ to ‘best for 5G’. Our lead message was getting lost in this noise. And customers ended up simply looking for the best smartphone deals rather than the network capabilities that surrounded them.

Given that, we were asked to bolster 5G roll-outs and broader handset launch communications to help maintain our price premium. Specifically, we were asked to 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 network and the experience it gives you.

Our idea was to demonstrate what being on EE meant and felt like, experienced through the eyes of influential customers. These people resonated with our base; from sneakerheads to rollerskating teachers, through to spoken word poets and culturally diverse gamers.

We kicked off this approach with 5G, where each customer would ask – “We’re 5GEE…are you?” This was brought to life through a range of social videos, housed within our base’s passion points. These customers told the story to their communities, telling their friends and families.

Over the course of 2020, demonstrating what being an EE customer felt like inspired our audience/s to realise that if they wanted to enjoy cutting-edge experiences, they needed to sign up with EE now.

We embedded this feeling throughout our communications; from redesigning our Early Life programme to priming our base ahead of our iPhone launch, it infiltrated every element of our customer communications.

EE’s brand is centred around helping customers do things differently with its technological expertise; opening up the possibilities available to them. We felt there was something rich there, and an ideal place to move away from telling people about handsets.

We needed to focus on the network in order to explain why EE itself was the right place for our curious customers, and how we made a difference.

When we were first briefed in late 2019, we did a bit of digging: What did people think of networks?

To our dismay, the answer was – not a lot. Our primary differentiator, 5G, was very new. Apple and Samsung had yet to launch their devices and given that a significant portion of our base were with those brands, it became obvious that we needed to explain the long-term benefits of our network to cut through.

Our idea was to demonstrate what being on EE meant and felt like, experienced through the eyes of influential customers. These people resonated with our base; from sneakerheads to roller skating teachers, through to spoken word poets and culturally diverse gamers.

We kicked off this approach with 5G, where each customer would ask “We’re 5GEE…are you?” This was brought to life through a range of social videos, housed around our base’s passion points. These customers told the story to their communities, telling their friends and families on a ownable platform for the brand.

Over the course of 2020, each execution could flex to whatever customer story we wanted to tell, our short snackable pieces of content demonstrating what being an EE customer felt like. Its ultimately inspired our audience to realise that if they wanted to enjoy cutting-edge experiences on the best network, they needed to sign up with

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 loyalty was on the right path, when sales sky-rocketed to 2.5 million within our existing customer base 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) to now. 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.