2degrees has launched a new campaign, with Special Group and The Sweet Shop, to promote its rollover data plans by popping the question: where does all that unused mobile data go?
A series of dramatized videos, directed by Damien Shatford, answer the question with a black market of unused data, a warehouse of “decomposing” data, and it being smuggled out of the country and sold at auction. The scenarios are intended to represent the way 2degree’s competitors are taking away their customers’ leftover data at the end of the month only to sell it back to them the following month.
The 45-second video is supported by three smaller 15-second spots, which each focus on one of the scenarios.
2degrees head of marketing communications Charlotte Johnson said in a release: “We’re here to dramatise, in a humorous way, that Kiwis across the country can be getting a much better and fairer deal with 2degrees. There’s no need for Kiwis to be paying for mobile data then have it disappear every month.”
The videos have also been supported by outdoor campaign, and an open letter, in today’s New Zealand Herald, addressed to Spark and Vodafone pay monthly customers.
In it, the metaphor of supermarkets stealing left over groceries is used to invite the customers to switch to a 2degree’s pay monthly plan and keep their unused data.
Mobile data usage is increasing rapidly among Kiwis, according to Research New Zealand’s 2015 Survey of New Zealanders’ smartphone use. It found 48 percent of smartphone users used their phones more last year than they did in 2014 and 86 percent of them specifically used it more to connect to the internet.
The report also identified smartphones as the preferred device to look for reference information, access social media sties and do online banking – all activities that require access to the internet.
Since then, however, the need to use smartphones to access the internet has increased further, most recently accentuated with the launch of Pokemon Go, which, according to Radio New Zealand, led to a ten percent spike in mobile phone data use in its first two weeks.
The launch of 2degrees latest campaign coincides with a review of the 2degrees creative account, which has been put up for pitch.
