In 2023, 66% of women feel unsafe walking alone at night. Not just in dark parks, but in well-lit areas. So what happens when the thing they rely on to help them get home doesn’t work? Running out of mobile data makes the situation worse; leaving them even more vulnerable when planning a route home.

EE’s ‘Stay Connected Data’ helps the 772k people that run out of data each month stay connected to essential apps like CityMapper & Uber. We needed an action to exemplify the security that SC offers to EE customers, for everyone. Helping women, regardless of their phone network, to plan their journey home safely.

As students are the group most likely to be out late and run out of data, we targeted Europe’s largest student city; Manchester. The work needed to reinforce EE’s leadership position, addressing a genuine societal need and driving key Masterbrand consideration levers.

The campaign strategy was highly targeted to ensure we provided help to students out in Manchester during the live period.

52 Digital D6’s were arranged in a loop across the city center, targeted around popular nightlife spots such as bars and clubs, guiding towards central transport hubs. We had a full takeover of the screens between 8pm – 3am to ensure we were showing up in the right spots at the right moment.

We used a targeted social strategy to reach our EE customer demographic, within the local area. Social content was used to drive two objectives: 1.Upskill people with information about how to use safety features in their apps 2. Amplify the OOH campaign to raise awareness of Stay Connected Data.

From dusk ‘till dawn, a loop of smart billboards in popular nightlife hotspots in the city center displayed useful travel information including live updates on trains, trams and buses and directions for them to follow to find the nearest transport hub. The loop created a highly targeted route home, guiding from central Manchester, back home to the student area: Fallowfield.

Within the loop, augmented reality technology brightened gloomy spaces as people approached, and public phone charging points helped those whose phones were dead.

The outdoor campaign was supported by a Manchester targeted social campaign; local DJs gave tips on how to use the safety functions in travel apps when traveling at night.

Our OOH aided half a million journeys home from the city center in just 2 weeks, whilst the Manchester targeted social amplified the campaign to an additional 2.1 million people; overdelivering on clicks by 54% and driving a 250% increase in traffic to the site where content taught people how to use the safety features in their travel apps - supporting EE’s wider objective to digitally upskill the nation.

‘Home Safe’ drove positive behaviour change: 41% said they’d now have a conversation with their friends about getting home safely after a night out.

We successfully drove perceptions of brand leadership; 40% said ‘EE takes action to make the world a better place.’ and anecdotal response was EE is “Modern, progressive, socially aware, supporting LGBTQ”

The resulting brand impact for EE was significant, with the campaign driving 60% uplift in brand consideration; outperforming 75% of UK ads.