We all know what that moment of breaking feels like. And we all probably say and feel exactly the same thing “Oh Shit”….or “Oops” if mum’s in earshot.

The challenge we set ourselves was how we could use media to evoke that feeling in people. The media itself was our star, not just a vehicle for a sales message. It was about communicating a feeling first and foremost.

O2 wanted to go big – it was an industry first. But they needed to say it without saying it. We needed to make the media the message to drive talkability and sales.

So we set out to smash things up – sometimes literally.

We combined the use of technology to show screens smashing on key sites with physically “breaking” or creating broken fake billboards to get people to stop, mutter their own “oops” and remind them it could happen to them.

Where phones were most likely to be dropped such as shopping malls, music venues or during the commuter rush we crafted bespoke executions for dramatic effect.

Within existing formats we:

• Created DEPs in the Underground. We ‘rolled’ phones down escalator panels, the device bouncing down the screens as commuters descended.

• Used lenticular motion-detection technology on six sheets so that screens “cracked”, triggered by commuters.

• Smashed the Waterloo Motion, the UKs biggest screen.

We persuaded contractors to let us meddle with their inventory.

We:

• Took billboards off their hinges so huge posters were hanging lop-sided off their fittings….we even dressed some with “hazard” cones to add realism.

• Created fake billboards - fitted them and then smashed them up.

• Created a dedicated campaign for music venues; known to be the highest density of phone breakages anywhere due to a perfect storm of hand waving and alcohol.

We smashed it. A high impact two-week UK-wide OOH campaign in August hit 33.8M consumers 250M times. In September Underground, press and digital formats were deployed.

Against objectives:

Prime market ahead of iPhone launch

• Brand love increased +12%,

• Customer care and value perceptions +7%

• Consideration rose +3% among prospects ahead of our competitors

Drive IPhone upgrades

• Oops! drove 170k phone upgrades (32% above target)

Drive uptake of ‘Oops’ tariff (20GB +)

• 68% of customers moved to our ‘Oops Tariff” versus a 49% target

• The campaign drove 70% of period sales and an incremental 17m revenue Y-O-Y

So effective was the campaign in evoking a feeling above and beyond delivering a message that people took to social media to report our staged breakages. We got 190m earned reach impressions, over 3,000 social mentions and calls to contractors reporting broken panels.