T-Mobile to launch user-generated music video ad
T-Mobile is launching the latest phase of its “Life’s for Sharing” ad campaign featuring the music video of a user-generated song called ‘Come with me’, set up using only T-Mobile’s free texts and internet for life offer.
The new ad will air tomorrow (15 January) during Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother, running for the entire ad break at 9.30pm – the same slot that T-Mobile’s first Life’s for Sharing ad ‘Dance’ aired in last year. Saatchi and Saatchi created the campaign.
The Come with me music video is by a user-generated band called Josh’s band and originates from T-Mobile’s last campaign in September last year, which featured vox pops centred on the way people use the mobile operator’s products to make the most of their money.
In one of the ads, amateur musician Josh Ward said that he would use the T-Mobile offer of free texts for life to start a superband. Since then, Ward held a jamming session while riding an open topped bus around London andsigned up 1107 band members to be involved in the recording of the song. Each one is now featured on the track, and the song has been released as a single by Universal Records.
Everyone involved in the band and featured in the ads either received a text from Josh or got in touch via his MySpace page or on Twitter. Lyrics and music scores were also posted here for people to learn before coming to the jamming sessions.
Lysa Hardy, head of brand and communications at T-Mobile UK, says: “In our earlier ‘Life’s for Sharing’ campaigns we created moments that people could share. This time we challenged Josh to show how – using just his phone – he could share his dream of setting up a band. It’s been fantastic to see how fans have interacted with the T-Mobile brand and helped shape the direction of this campaign – which culminates in this final ad spot, celebrating the band’s incredible journey right the way through to the release of their single.”
In addition to the 1107 band members, Josh has also built up 1,529 followers on Twitter, had 114,995 views on his MySpace page and 52,063 views on his YouTube channel since the start of the campaign.
Paul Silburn, Creative Partner at Saatchi & Saatchi London says: “It’s been fascinating to see how the idea evolved. No-one knew whether Josh would actually be able to start a superband, it was up to him and the British public to make it happen. And they did.”
T-Mobile UK announced it would merge with Orange in September, formalising the deal in November.
Ofcom has warned that the merger could trigger a competition review and The Office of Fair Trading is considering investigating the proposals.
