Josh’s Band
Saatchi & Saatchi, London
Issue 14 | March 2010
Agency
Saatchi & Saatchi, London
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors: Kate Stanners, Paul Silburn, Creative Team: Rick Dodds, Stephen Howell
Production Team
Agency Producers: Ed sayers, Jennifer Kennedy, Emma Wolanski, Production Company: Pulse Films, Directors: Fred Scott, Nick Davies, Pulse Producer: Dan Bowen
Other Credits
Account Director: Sarah Galea, Account Manager: Laura Mills, Business Leader: Sally Beerworth,
Date
September 2009 – January 2010
Background
The two previous instalments of the T-Mobile’s ‘Life’s for Sharing’ campaign were both brand spots, where the agency created memorable moments for people to share. This time the brief was to introduce one of T-Mobile’s tariffs into the mix. The good news was that it was a great offer – free texts and internet for PAYG customers. So this time the challenge was to get a genuine member of the public to create one of these sharing moments him or herself using the offer to achieve it.
In doing so, T-Mobile hoped to increase their PAYG sales .
Idea
The agency started by interviewing the general public on the streets of Manchester and London about what they would do with free texts and internet for life. While filming these vox-pops on Brick Lane in London, a young man called Josh said he’d use his free texts and free internet to start a superband.
The agency said, “Okay, go on then.”
Two documentary filmmakers, Fred & Nick from Pulse films, then began to follow Josh around with cameras as he attempted to make his superband a reality.
It started with him getting about 40 friends together for a jam. But he wanted it to get much bigger so with his free internet he used his Myspace page to invite anyone and everyone to join the band. He kept everybody updated using Twitter, Facebook and his Youtube channel.
His next idea was to organize a jam on an open-top bus, where anybody could jump on or off. This stunt put the band on the front page of Myspace. It also attracted the attention of esteemed music producer Jonathon Quarmby, who invited Josh and a couple of band members to use his studio to write a song.
Josh then posted the song and how to play it on his Myspace page, which now had over 2,000 band members on it. He organised a tour to 5 key UK cities, so he could record as many people as possible playing the track with him.
A staggering 1,107 band members met Josh across the 5 cities and recorded the song with him. Universal then released the track, and the music video featuring the tour played out as a special 3 minute TV advert.
The camera’s have since stopped filming but Josh’s Band and its unique philosophy are continuing.
Results
For Josh, his free texts and internet helped him build a band with over 2,500 people signed up to it and 1,107 recorded for the debut single.
His Myspace page had 130,000 views.
His Youtube channel had 70,000 uploaded views.
For T-Mobile, sales of Pay As You Go packages increased by 52% during the 4 months of Josh’s Campaign
Christmas was a record-breaking period for sales and footfall at T-Mobile retail outlets, including the busiest Saturday in their history.
Our Thoughts
This won’t win all the Golds which ‘Dance’ did a year ago for T-Mobile but in some ways it’s a more impressive bit of work.
For starters it didn’t have the soft objectives of the brand-building work earlier in the year but some very hard numbers that had to be hit.
The idea of turning a chance encounter into a movement, Josh demonstrating what you could do with all the free texts and internet time, and demonstrating it in a way that reinforced the ‘life’s for sharing’ platform, was a genuine creative leap. And bravo too to a client who would have had to buy this idea more in hope than in expectation. The agency must be hoping she doesn’t move on too quickly and leave them to the mercy of someone altogether less trusting.