The Germans pay hundreds of millions too much for their phones – without knowing it.

The reason: unfair contracts that force them to pay the same combined price for phone and plan – even when they have already payed off the device a long time ago. In Germany, we call them bundle contracts. Unfair stuff! On the other hand, with our “o2 my handy” offer, you get two separate contracts. Which means: you can be sure to never overpay for your phone. So, to raise awareness about the problem and to communicate our fair offers, a big splash was needed.

The 5700 Euro Phone. A cheeky online guerilla stunt that used an online local ad platform where people search for fair deals to create the most unfair offer Germany has ever seen: a Nokia 8110 from 1996 for 5,700 Euros. Yes, not kidding.

Since most Germans don’t know they are paying too much for their phones when they have a bundle contract, we needed a solution that creates the maximum amount of attention. And you don’t get that when it’s coming directly from another telco provider via regular ads or posting. You need a story told by someone else. So, what’s better than creating an absurdly unfair offer by a “real” person and put it up for sale on a platform where people are looking for especially fair offers? The strategy was: use humour and storytelling to create credibility and relatability, on a platform people expect it the least – and let the power of social media do the rest.

We invented a character: 60 year-old Ernst. Ernst has a Nokia 8110 he pays off since 1996. That’s over 5,700 Euros! So, we wrote an insanely unfair offer for his phone and put it up for sale on a platform where people search for fair deals: Ebay Kleinanzeigen. A special German version of Ebay for local ads. The price for the phone: 5700 Euro. The same amount he paid too much for the last 25 years. Within hours, the offer created a lot of buzz. Celebrities, influencers and blogs shared it via social media. User commented like crazy. And wrote hundreds of messages to Ernst. Or with us, to be precise. He even had an appearance on a famous podcast where he negotiated with the hosts. After 2 weeks, we revealed everything. With a mockumentary about Ernst that linked to a microsite where users could find our fair offers.

- More than 31,000,000 in Press Reach

- Over 16,500,000 Social Media Impressions

- Over 185,000 Social Media Interactions

- More than 250,000 Microsite visits

- 6.3 % Engagement Rate for all reveal campaign assets

- But most importantly: an ongoing discussion about unfair bundle contracts in the German public that leads to only one telco provider, where the contracts are fairly separated: us.