Virgin Mobile Australia enlists Glee star Jane Lynch to front new ‘Make Mobile Better’ campaign via Havas Worldwide Australia + One Green Bean
Virgin Mobile Australia has today announced the launch of a major integrated brand campaign called ‘Making mobile better’ via Havas Worldwide Australia and One Green Bean.
The telco has enlisted US actress, comedian and star of Glee, Jane Lynch, to front the campaign, which will demonstrate the tangible ways Virgin Mobile is making the mobile experience better for its customers and aim to transform our silliest mobile behaviours into a force for good.
The campaign launched this week with a 60-second online content piece that demonstrates the absurdity of our mobile behaviour by removing the mobile phone from the situation – a Facebook check-in becomes a public megaphone announcement, a text is written on a typewriter, and selfies are taken with Polaroids and handed out to strangers. The video content is being housed across Virgin Mobile’s owned channels, including a new website dedicated to the Making mobile better campaign, makingmobilebetter.com.au, and is being pushed out as pre-rolls.
This Sunday 13 July, a 45-second launch TVC will air across free-to-air and subscription television nationally. The TVC stars Lynch and is directed by acclaimed Hollywood director, Jeff Tremaine, the driving force behind comedy hits Jackass and Bad Grandpa. The spot was produced by US-based production company, Virgin Produced, part of the global Virgin brand family and equally renowned for pushing creative boundaries with a focus on quality and innovation. In the spot, Jane highlights some of the silly ways in which we use our phones and the effect this is having on our relationships and lives, before outlining the ways in which Virgin Mobile is going to make it better. The TVC will also run in cinemas nationally.
Says Nicole Bardsley, director of brand and communications, Virgin Mobile: “Better than anyone, we know the power mobile phones have in bringing people together and strengthening human relationships. However, we also acknowledge that some mobile phone behaviour can be antisocial, when not kept in check! Our hope is that by Jane pointing out the humour in some of this behaviour, people are in a better position to find that important balance between what’s happening on their phone and what’s happening right in front of them.”
Additional media support at launch will include major national outdoor, digital, display, pre-roll video, mobile executions and Facebook advertising all promoting the range of benefits Virgin Mobile offers customers, including coverage on the Optus 4G network, free Voicemail within Oz, and free Virgin to Virgin calls & texts and rollover on unused calls & texts for Postpaid customers within Oz, as well as tips and tricks for making the mobile experience better.
The campaign is centralised around makingmobilebetter.com.au, which will be the campaign hub featuring an ongoing and regularly updated series of ‘Making mobile better’ content and information produced by various partners. As part of the campaign, Virgin Mobile has also embarked on a yearlong content partnership with VICE Australia, which will see ‘Making mobile better’ brought to life through a range of content pieces across VICE’s digital platforms and Virgin Mobile’s owned channels.
The making mobile better ethos underpins all activity undertaken by Virgin Mobile.. A number of internal initiatives will be launched including ‘mobile free meetings’ and a policy to reduce the sending of non-urgent emails out of work hours, to encourage staff to live a life of balance and improve communication with one another.
Says Bardsley: “Our new brand positioning recognises Virgin Mobile as a brand that is growing up, but still willing to shake things up in the market! For years we’ve believed in giving our customers a fair deal and feel it’s our role to make the mobile industry better by keeping the pressure on the big guys. By coming out and saying we’re making mobile better, we’re showing we’re committed to improving our customers’ mobile experience through innovative products, excellent service and great value for money. But we’re also walking the walk by launching a range of inspiring initiatives that will tackle some of the more trivial mobile behaviours and encourage people to use their mobile phones as a force for good.
“Mobile phones are so intrinsically ingrained into our lives, we hope that by making mobile better we might be able to have a positive impact on the bigger world we live in too.”
Says Lynch: “Positive communication is something that’s close to my heart. While I know mobile phones are incredible devices and love mine dearly, I can also see they have a sneaky tendency to sometimes reduce the quality of our communication – we tweet someone instead of calling them and scroll through the newsfeeds of strangers while ignoring the ones we love. I think it’s brilliant that a telco has identified some of this behaviour and I’m so excited to join Virgin Mobile in their quest to make mobile better.”
Virgin Mobile launches #mealforameal
The first initiative Virgin Mobile is launching as part of ‘Making mobile better’ is #mealforameal, which sees the telco partner with food rescue service OzHarvest take the trivial mobile behaviour of sharing photos of food on social media, and make it better.
Every time someone snaps a photo of their food and posts it to social media with the hashtag #mealforameal, Virgin Mobile will donate to OzHarvest so they can deliver a real meal to someone in need. Through this initiative, Virgin Mobile aims to help combat hunger and food wastage by delivering 400,000 meals through OzHarvest.
Says Ronni Kahn, founder and CEO of OzHarvest: “Taking photos of your food has become somewhat of a phenomenon – it’s hard to imagine social media without a steady stream of food pics! Yet every year in Australia alone, four million tonnes of food is wasted and $8 billion worth of food is thrown away! This is happening while two million Australians rely on food relief for their meals! Through #mealforameal, we’re able to take a fun mobile behaviour and give it real meaning, making a huge impact to people in need.”
Says Bardsley: “We’re delighted to partner with OzHarvest for this exciting initiative – just as we aim to be the champions of change in the telco sector, OzHarvest are the champions of change in their sector. We’re in awe of the incredible work they do across Australia and look forward to helping them on their quest to reduce hunger and food wastage – one hashtag at a time.”
Creative: Havas Worldwide Australia / One Green Bean
ATL Digital: Havas Worldwide Australia
Wesbite, Social Media and PR: One Green Bean
Media: Starcom
Director: Jeff Tremaine
Production: Virgin Produced
Editing: Frame Set Match
Music and Sound Design: Song Zu
32 Comments
oh dear
no…no ….no.
wow.
I love this
Should have got her sister.
More excellent work from Havas. This is sure to get everyone talking.
Well done CJ, Si, Nic and Paris.
This is miles better than anything those other telco shmucks are up to.
Solid.
My wife told me to check this out on Sunrise this morning – some of the things to come in this campaign look amazing!
This is so much smarter than the Telstra, Vodaphone and Optus work – but you expect that from Virgin I guess.
How good is Jane Lynch! Great casting, well written. If it’s OGB and Havas, I bet there’s more coming too.
Another stellar effort by the guys at Havas OGB and Starcom, well done CJ, Paris, Nic & Si.
Directed by the director of Jackass sure, but produced by one of Australia’s finest!
Ros P.
Just love what you guys have done – it’s funny and useful! More please…
You should enter this into every award show. It’s totes amaze balls.
This is a Virgin Ad? Wow, you can tell Optus have had their paws on the Virgin DNA.
What is happening to Virgin? How did Richard Branson approve this!? This is awful, account-losing stuff.
Why is this so American?
‘best friend’ and we see the dog
‘rollover’ and we see the sign… rollover
‘has tag our hash browns’
Genius stuff there guys, sure to pick up some metal.
When the work doesn’t live up to the comments everyone at the agency is posting, it really shows. Look at Virgin work in the past – unfortunately, this isn’t even close.
Finally one of the Telcos does a campaign based on reality. ‘Yes’ to more of this.
Love it. So funny. too true about idiotic mobile habits.
Looking forward to more of this sass with a bit of substance. I’m off to take a pic of my lunch. Well done, guys!
Why would you sledge your own customers, and potential customers, for what they do with their own phones? Once the phone is in someone’s hand it’s up to them to decide how to use, not the fucken telcos.
And of course those things are stupid without the phone, but that’s like saying the things we do in the work environment would be stupid outside of the work environment – no shit. But that’s the culture of that particular ‘thing’; be it a smartphone or an office.
I’m not having a go for the sake of it, I just believe your whole strategy is flawed and the cherry on the already shithouse banana sundae is your execution lacks humour.
Virgin Mobile has to be the best client in Australia so it’s a shame when the work doesn’t live up to their reputation.
Will Havas please get off the blog.
Who are the creatives responsible for this?
I’m not sure what is more embarrassing. The piece of shit I just watched or the fact that the agency seem very into it.
Compared to everything, not just the other Virgin stuff, this is atrocious.
I’d consider this bad and an incredible waste of money for any client but when you consider these are the same guys who approved Doug Pitt, Warren, Jason Donovan, Ming Mong, 5 cent… You have to blame the agency.
Add the chick from Glee and the director of Jackass (why?) and you get the sense they rolled this in so much glitter that the original turd would have been best left unpolished.
This is beyond shit. At least you can fertilise your tomato plants with shit.
So you’re calling people stupid for using the product that you’re selling.
Interesting…
But feels very similar to this – by the same agency:
http://vimeo.com/m/75045617
Interesting that no creatives or CDs wanted to put their name on this, although I’m not at all surprised.
I suspect the blame for this atrocity lies with the client or One Green Bean.
If you’re going to post about your own work, at least make an attempt at sounding like you aren’t from the agency, “Doug”.
“Doug said:
How good is Jane Lynch! Great casting, well written. If it’s OGB and Havas, I bet there’s more coming too.”
No, we are not all sitting around thinking, “Gee, I wonder what that Dream Team of OGB and Havas will dream up next!! I’ve been following their work closely for some time now, and it really is terrific! Hmm… let me just put my hands behind my head, lean back in my chair, put my feet on my desk and reminisce about some of the wonderful campaigns they’ve produced… I WAS going to watch the latest episode of House of Cards tonight, or a re-run of Breaking Bad! (Chuckle.) But no, instead I might check out some more “OGB and Havas” work! I find that ALL their work has such great casting – and it’s so well written! I LOVE it!!”