Insight
Telekom had launched the first 4G telephony services in Hungary. Offering speeds up to five times as fast as 3G, it provides a faster, more seamless on-the-move digital experience.
It's challenge was to make this difference in speed more compelling to people who had never experienced the enhanced services 4G could offer. At the same time it needed to position Telekom as a brand at the cutting-edge of technology.
Telekom had lots of numbers about comparable download speeds but knew that messages focused on megabytes/second were instantly forgettable. What Telekom needed was to demonstrate a clear difference in the consumer experience that 4G delivered as well as the emotional benefits that came with it.
Telekom's research revealed that while the faster download times offered by 4G were unlikely to be a significant factor in the consumer experience of services such as email or texting, there were areas where 3G simply wasn’t up to scratch. Telekom identified that these areas were all related to the multimedia experience such as uploading or downloading photos and viewing videos.
With digital experiences increasingly focused on such image-rich opportunities Telekom identified this as their platform for success. Telekom's strategy needed to identify never-seen-before technology, and demonstrate just how much quicker 4G was at delivering the latest digital experiences.
Strategy
Every day consumers upload more than 500 million photos to the internet every day. But with so many photos being uploaded, not all the important photos are seen. Even the most memorable moments are at risk of becoming lost in the crowd.
But Telekom's insight went deeper than that: they realised that when a moment was heart-lifting, the act of sharing was an important part of the emotional response. Telekom would position 4G as more than just a technology that delivered faster digital services and transform it into a channel for the transmission of emotional highs.
Telekom would help its customers share these heart-lifting moments in a way that would ensure they could never be missed. The strategy would put these pivotal pictures on a massive palette. Thanks to Telekom and 4G, no one would be able to miss the memorable moments closest to the hearts of Hungarians.
Telekom would build a one-off piece of technology, one that would enable them to showcase submitted pictures on a canvas far bigger than any conventional outdoor site could ever offer. Telekom would create the world’s first flying photo printer.
Consumers would be able to submit their most beloved images and Telekom would let the whole world see them. It would celebrate these images in one of Hungary’s most prominent locations and encourage consumers to use its smartphones to capture and share them far and wide. Telekom would extend the invitation to participate for one week, with consumers encouraged to submit the images they cared about and participate in an incredible event.
Execution
Telekom identified the biggest canvas available and set about projecting its images on the night sky. Using a drone, an LED wire and software created for its campaign, Telekom turned the darkness into light.
Each photo would be broken down into a series of lines and the data transmitted to the drone via 4G. The image would then be recreated line by line, consumers would be able to see the whole picture by using the long exposure setting on their phones.
Telekom launched its Sky Gallery via an exclusive event, attended by Hungary’s celebrity photographer Pál Nánási as well as a host of local celebrities in one of Budapest’s prime squares.
For a week Telekom continued to draw photos in the sky and each image was captured and shared via Telekom’s owned channels. The event could be experienced right across the city giving massive reach via both direct and digital. To raise further interest in the cutting edge technology, Telekom seeded news of the event via key bloggers, online media as well as TV and radio stations.
Results
Telekom's gallery in the sky was massive. It broadcast nearly 4,000 photos across the sky, including multiple proposals of marriage.
One in five Telekom Facebook fans visited the app to find out more about the technology and see the images of the photos in the sky.
In total more than 700,000 Facebook users in Hungary – one in six of all users of the platform – have seen the launch post for the activity alone. Telekom's activity became big news, with coverage in local media, in press and on TV.