Virgin Mobile ridicules ‘anti-social’ mobile use in new campaign fronted by Glee’s Jane Lynch
Virgin Mobile Australia is ridiculing people’s use of their mobile phone as part of a brand campaign being launched today, as it seeks to transform anti social phone behaviour into a “force for good”.
The firm is using US comedy actress and star of Glee, Jane Lynch, to poke fun at how we post Facebook updates, tweet, share photos and tell friends of the mundane activities we get up to.
Along with promoting the Virgin product the campaign will drive users to a new website – makingmobilebetter.com.au – that will form the central hub of the campaign. Virgin Mobile has signed a year-long deal with Vice Australia to provide content to the website.
A 45-second TV ad, created by Havas Worldwide Australia and directed by Hollwood’s Jeff Tramaine, will air across free-to-air and subscription TV nationally from Sunday which will be supported with national outdoor, digital, display, pre-roll video, mobile executions and Facebook advertising.
http://youtu.be/yzodslgaZms
The three-month campaign kicked off this week with a 60-second online content piece
In the ads, Lynch mocks Facebook updates by using a megaphone to make announcements of what she is doing, writes ‘texts’ messages on typewriters and takes ‘selfies’ on a polaroid and hands them our to strangers to share.
Virgin Mobile director of brand and communications Nicole Bardsley said the campaign will aim to convince people to use their phone in a “meaningful way”.
“The idea is around how we are making mobile better and one of the ways to do that is by highlighting some of our anti-social behaviour,” she said. “Our hope is that by pointing out some of the absurdities of how we use our phones people will start to look at what is going on on their phones verses what is happening right in front of them.
“It’s about turning the phone, which is powerful, into a force for good. We believe we can make mobile better from a planet and people point of view.”
Virgin Mobile has joined forces with food rescue service OzHarvest in the debut initiative to feature on the making mobile better web platform, Bardsley explained.
Each time someone snaps a photo of their food and posts it on social media with the hashtag #mealforameal, Virgin Mobile will donate to the charity so they can deliver a meal to someone in need.
“Social media is overflowing with photos of food which we are sharing but we are not sharing in the true sense of the word,” Bardsley said. “It is taking something trivial and turning it into something meaningful.”
The content appearing on the website is designed to be shareable and “social-by-design”, she added, which will help “amplify and extend our own media investment”.
The brand has previously hit gold with its Fair Go Bro campaign starring Doug Pitt’s brother Doug, and last year ventured into gamification with the Game of Phones competition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAyTES9gDAU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5bGRQyeEgw
Campaign credits:
Creative: Havas Worldwide Australia/One Green Bean
ATL Digital: Havas Worldwide Australia
Website, social media and OPR: One Green Bean
Media: Starcom
TV credits:
Director: Jeff Tremaine
Production: Virgin Produced
Editing: Frame Set Match
Music and sound design: Song Zu
Steve Jones
topics
Glee
Havas
Havas Worldwide Australia
Jane Lynch
mobile
mobile phones
Nicole Bardsley
TV ads
Virgin Mobile
Why does Virgin always get US stars?
At least TELSTRA is supporting Local Talent (Jimmy, Madgs, Jess) and even unknowns – #TrendingFarmer
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Awesome campaign Virgin
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@marketerwhovescreativity yes, because only Australians deserve to work.
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What the hell has happened to Virgin? Their previous stuff was fantastic. Vanilla Ice, 5cent, Doug Pitt, Jason Donovan.
This is really awful in comparison. And a really well worn idea.
They deserve much better.
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Yep, awesome campaign indeed Virgin. If awesome is a pile of shit full of razor blades and a campaign is filming people swallowing it.
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@”What the hell has happened to Virgin? Their previous stuff was fantastic. Vanilla Ice, 5cent, Doug Pitt, Jason Donovan.”
None of those campaigns were successful because they relied on background knowledge that most of their target market were aware of.
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