giffgaff the world’s first people powered mobile network needed a big launch idea, but they couldn’t afford any glossy TV ads. Solution? They asked their potential customers to help make them famous.giffgaff created a range of wonderful ‘tools’ which potential customers could hire out for free and go forth and spread the word of giffgaff. People hired the tools from the giffgaff Tool Hire website. They then uploaded videos of their hires to Youtube to spread the word even further. The incentive? A magical SIM card giving hirers free calls for a year with giffgaff.

Teaser videos showing the making of the tools were seeded and built excitement in the run up to the launch of Tool Hire. Youtube celebrities were given the Tools and made their own viral videos driving thousands to the Tool Hire site.The tools were delivered all over Britian. The tools created a lot of buzz in public introducing thousands to giffgaff. The videos of these hires then brought countless more to giffgaff Tool Hire.And so the campaign started running itself.Giffgaff used the content created to make its first people powered advert shown on websites between online TV shows. Twitter and Facebook became the social hubs of the campaign where the community could interact and banter.

giffgaff went from being a small, unknown company to the forefront of the PayG mobile industry in the UK.They had set the benchmark for modern cool business and in doing so created a whole army of obsessive fans, not just customers.The campaign received over half a million hits within 3 months.giffgaff received a 500% increase in the first week of the promotion.Tool Hire featured on over 100,000 websites.giffgaff reached an audience of 1.2million viewers through primetime TV pickup due to Tool Hire.