Virgin Mobile is taking a mobile first approach to marketing this year following the success of its Game of Phones interactive campaign. It's eyeing up customers from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone and aims to to achieve more bank for its marketing buck because the message will be shared and amplified by consumers.
That's the theory at least, and socially shareable content is now firmly embedded in the heart of all its brand activity, according to Nicole Bardsley, director of Virgin Mobile brand and communications. She said how it plays out will come down to how the brand briefs its agencies.
Bardsley told AdNews: “We are adopting a mobile first philosophy in everything we do now – obviously as a mobile network we're uniquely placed to do that and interact with our customers. Game of phones was a great example of the marketing being in people's hands – that one to one level of communication is something we'll continue to strive to do.
“We've always said we want to have a uniquely shareable idea that our customers will help spread the message for us. The last few campaigns we've worked on have been socially-led by design so now we're taking it one step further and asking how can we get mobile to play a key role going forward.”
The brand has yet to analyse the data from players of its Game of Thrones spoof mobile game which wrapped up before Christmas but over the course of the year will be looking to see what impact the game had on customer churn. It will look at whether customers that engaged with the game are more likely to stick with the network than its average churn rate or whether non-Virgin customers who played the game join the network.
Feedback to the game has been “overwhelmingly positive” and the response has “blown expectations”, reckons Bardsley. There is a possibility that Virgin mobile could repeat the game in 2014 as customers have requested it, but Bardsley said the brand is acutely aware of the need to innovate as a challenger brand in a market where tempting customers to switch, and then retaining them, is no mean feat.
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