It’s fair to say that the UK’s mobile sector has often struggled with consumer perception. There are too many instances of connectivity issues, customer complaints and Ofcom fines. And yet the big brands’ hyperbole has always seemed to promise the world. Power to you, they told us. Breathe it all in. Get ready for the future.

Compared to the vast majority of sectors, the big brands have consistently scored poorly for consumer satisfaction and trust for years, probably ever since the debacle of the national 3G rollout in 2003.

Time for something different

Over the last 3 years we’ve been working with SMARTY Mobile, the value-driven SIM Only network operating under the more down-to-earth banner of “Simple honest mobile”.

As a relatively young brand, they achieved phenomenal early growth, largely through a performance marketing led strategy. But it became clear that to really compete and drive awareness they would need to start using “Big Brand Behaviours” (thanks to Zenith Media for that soundbite!), which really meant getting on TV in a big way.

First though, we really needed to know more about the size and nature of the potential SMARTY audience.

Understanding who, what, where and why

SMARTY commissioned some extensive research through Davies & McKerr which showed there are upwards of 10 million consumers in the UK that just want their mobile service to work and for it to be good value and flexible. This cemented the view we had that the big network brands’ positioning was simply out of step with a large swathe of UK consumers.

What’s more, the research showed these consumers are perfectly willing to seek out smaller brands that are capable of delivering what they need, with a confidence to switch providers and a mentality to “beat the big brands system”.

We’ll fist bump to that

So with 10 million savvy consumers open to a more simple and humble mobile brand, along with a post-lockdown cultural context of people desperate to feel normal and healthy again, we created our “Fist Bumps” platform. It uses fist bumps to celebrate the simple, relatable idea of everyday little victories. It rolled out on 1^st June across linear TV and VOD.

The TV ad sees the main character, Georgie, discovering SMARTY Mobile’s 30GB for £10 plan for the first time, setting in motion a happy journey which sees her fist bumping a string of strangers in the park, all to the funk sound of Suga by Switch and Sara Ruba. Naturally, it all feels very in-step with an upbeat post-COVID culture as we all start to come out of hibernation.

Alongside the TV and VOD, social is a key channel for the campaign and Gravity Road translated the assets brilliantly to drive engagement across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and we’ve also launched a discounted Unlimited Data deal under the Fist Bumps platform.

Fist Bumps will now be rolled out across all touchpoints though the rest of this year. More than a campaign, it’s a simple, humble, relatable ethos for the brand. In the words of Simon Sinek, it’ll be SMARTY’s “why”.