Page 14 - Sphere No.19 (Jun 2007)

12 SPHERE
“In Australia in 2003 the target market
was young, tech savvy and primarily at-
tracted the 18-24 years old,” says
Jo Trapnell, 3’s General Man-
ager, Marketing Planning and
Communication in Austra-
lia. “After a couple of years it
started to look as if we were trying
too hard to be different and focusing too
much on value.
“Our ads using string puppets, while
creative and appealing to that younger
demographic, were at odds with the
sleekness of our brand, our tie in to
cricket through our sponsorship of the
Australian team and our stylish shops.
We repositioned the brand by focusing
on targeting a mindset, not an age, with
the ‘It’s good to be 3’ campaign which
launched in March last year.”
The campaign focused on the benefits
of being with 3 – the great services like
mobile TV or music, the superb value or
the attractive handsets.
A key feature of the campaign was the
Australian cricket team, which beat tra-
ditional rivals England 5-0 in the Ashes
series, a focal point of the Australian
summer and a significant opportunity
for brand exposure and consumer edu-
cation. 3’s customers were able to watch
live telecasts of every match on their mo-
biles for a fixed monthly fee. The cam-
paign was a huge success.
For 3 Australia, 2007 is witnessing the
further development of the “It’s good to
be 3” campaign. “It’s evolved to focus
on 3 liberating the emotional benefits
that 3 can bring you, underpinned by
the rational benefits of why it’s good to
be 3,” explains Ms Trapnell. “For example,
having the news on your phone is rational,
brought to life in advertising by dramatis-
ing the ‘need to know’. This theme will be
used in everything we do, from how we
dress our shops to our Website.”
The campaign strategy has also
evolved significantly in Italy. The first 3
Italia campaign used the message “You,
with the strength of 3”, with the focus
on the company values (creativity, open-
ness, humanity, positiveness, passion and
simplicity) rather than individual prod-
ucts. The second phase put the emphasis
on the main video products to show that
3 Italia was the market leader.
In 2004, 3 Italia launched a
new campaign: “You can see
if you have 3.” It was a clever
play on the idea that a phone
helps you see (everything you
want to watch) and at the same
time be seen (people can see that you