When we surveyed the landscape of telecom advertising, we realized how cluttered it was with meaningless jargon and empty proclamations. Competitors were spending three times as much as Sprint to shout that they were the biggest or the fastest or the newest, and the customer was completely absent from the conversation.

We needed to cut through the clutter and show customers that they matter. So instead of celebrating our network, we celebrated the things people do on our network - by having them performed by legendary actors James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell. Our target audience was enormous, so we honored the conversations of a wide range of people - from teenage girls to married couples to thirty-something guys to college kids. By reenacting relatable, authentic-feeling conversations, we could connect with people on a personal level and establish ourselves as the company that understands them.

In mass media, we honored texts, calls and Tweets by having our actors dramatically perform those conversations. Online, we honored as many people in as many ways as we could by asking them to post things they’d done on our network with #honorthis. We then honored those things with video tributes narrated by our stars, which we shared with our 2 million Facebook fans. Next, we created a website where Malcolm McDowell honored real tweets by reading them over a live orchestra. Finally, we created a TV spot in honor of a customer, which debuted worldwide on her Twitter page.

Prior to launch, Sprint’s online conversation was unbelievably negative with network service complaints. The campaign reversed the tide. In six weeks, conversation went from 85% negative to 95% positive. Brand metrics skyrocketed with a 104% increase in recall and 75% increase in breakthrough – and we exceeded every category norm. Facebook recorded an unprecedented 4% engagement level – 100% higher than the benchmark. We had nearly 50 million impressions despite no PR efforts and over 4 million YouTube views. It was the most socially engaging campaign in Sprint’s history. It also propelled business with 58,000 net adds, the first increase in 2013.