The key insight driving the evolution of this campaign is that consumers do not love their wireless networks (the category has a NPS of just 24 according to Customer Gauge) but they do love their phones. According to reviews.org 74% of Americans say they feel uneasy leaving their phone at home, 71% check their phones within minutes of waking up and 45% say that their phone is their most valuable possession. We love our phones for good reasons. They deliver us unlimited amounts of entertaining content via streaming audio and video, books, magazines and social media. They allow us to check the weather and what’s going on in our neighborhood from the comfort of our sofas. And they connect us to family and friends, wherever they are in the country, or the world.

Cricket wanted to stand out from the competition by reminding people of the joy that people’s phones bring them. By embodying and representing that joy, we could truly differentiate from the competition. So, we created a series of brand elements that channeled that happiness:

- A chipper sonic brand signature

- A set of irreverent and joyful characters

- An emoji based end card

- The taglines “Smile, you’re on Cricket” and “Stress Less, Smile More”

These elements stood in stark contrast to the competition who are uniformly serious and focused on strictly rational rather than emotional messaging. Sprint, for example, communicated their ability to slash your cell phone bill. Other networks communicated speed, coverage and reliability. They often did so in an entertaining and humorous way, but the core of their message was always rational.

Over time our characters, which had begun as 2D illustrated images, became 3D. They then got names, personalities and began to speak and interact with humans and one another. The sonic device is used at the beginning of every spot to immediately introduce the brand and ensure that brand linkage is strong for every impression. The tagline and end card closed out our spots, allowing us to write joyful stories featuring our characters, bookended by powerful branded assets to drive familiarity with the brand.

When we adopted this approach it was a reflection of the team’s experience and what we had seen drive effectiveness in the past. More than anything, these assets are powerful because they can be extended into any channel, at any stage of the consumer journey. Our extensive and highly effective presence in social, programmatic digital and online video is testament to the flexibility of the brand world that we have created. We are frequently noted as being best in class by partners such as Snapchat, Pinterest and TikTok when compared to competitors within the vertical as well as brands in other industries.

This work has resulted in Cricket holding the #1 spot for most brand metrics despite being continually outspent. Additionally, among major carriers, AT&T had the fastest growing prepaid portfolio in the U.S. based on net prepaid line additions in 2022 - which includes Cricket Wireless.