Challenge:Young people saw Telstra as the brand their parents use, boring, sensible and not for them.

Objective:To start a conversation, online and offline with young Australians shifting Telstra’s brand consideration - once this started we could begin marketing specific services/offers to this segment.Strategy:Research highlighted the social insight: young people want experiences on the weekends that they can tell their friends about. We created a media platform which allowed young people to share their experiences online using their mobile phones.

The media relations strategy targeted young KOLs to generate interest and create advocacy, followed by youth publications to give the campaign street credibility. Finally, we targeted the mass media to generate reach and maintain momentum.Execution:We created Cabbie-Oke – a combination of karaoke and a free cab ride For a free cab ride, all people had to do was sing. In-cab cameras were installed in custom designed/built cabs, which captured their performances, and uploaded the edited content onto a YouTube channel and microsite, with prizes for best performances.

Outcome:Wide scale PR coverage on television, radio and print reached over 5 million Australians. Through social media we reached over 117,000 of the 2.5 million target demographic.

Where: Sydney and Melbourne, AustraliaWhen: March & November 2010Duration: 10 weeksPhase 1:We launched Cabbie-Oke to a group of young key opinion leaders (KOLs) at hip venues in Sydney and Melbourne. The KOLs experienced Cabbie-Oke first and showed immediate and genuine interest in the Telstra campaign. This helped to start the conversation online.Phase 2:Media/blogger Cabbie-Oke experience nights were held in Sydney and Melbourne targeting online and offline youth and niche street press. This helped create credibility around the campaign and continued the ground swell, spreading the message through traditional and non-traditional media outlets.

Phase 3:A series of one-on-one media experiences with national TV, radio, print and online outlets were coordinated. Exclusive spots on national breakfast TV, online news sites and radio promoted Cabbie-Oke to the masses.The campaign ran to its original plan and was even extended by six weeks due to popularity.

Direct engagement- 1,724 individual experiences- 665 hours of engagementTraditional media engagement- Wide scale PR coverage on television – Today Show, Sunrise- Radio including NovaFM- Youth blogs and street press- ROI = 4:1- PR Reach: 5.7 million- AVE: $183,234Social media engagement- 4.1 million video reach in social networks- 63,601 YouTube Cabbie-Oke views- 974 social media mentions- 117,900 potential reach- 91,342 minutes of brand engagement/viewershipTelstra's brand consideration saw a relative shift of 10.25% during the campaign period