Over the last three years, the UK racked up an astonishing £1bn repair bill for cracked mobile phone screens. O2 listened and took a stand: making free screen repairs a core market proposition for the first time, anywhere, a big deal in telco land.

The timing of the campaign was consciously aimed to break immediately before the new iPhone launch. O2 was the only network offering t free repair with the new contract as part of its “Ooops” tariff. So this competitive advantage message deserved a big platform.

We had three core objectives:

1) Prime market ahead on new iPhone launch to favor 02

2) Drive iPhone upgrades

3) Drive uptake of ‘oops’ tariff (20GB +)

Our idea was to use media to communicate this feeling through breaking formats in relatable ‘Oops! Moments’.

02 told us that almost all phone breakages happen in high traffic, public spaces. (makes sense, distracted people, no carpets). Therefore OOH led our campaign.

We used Smartsteps Telefonica data to identify mobile usage hotspots where we saw high multitasking and crowd volumes, i.e high likelihood of bumping, fumbling and dropping

But we were worried that using existing inventory in its existing form was not going to be remarkable enough for such as remarkable deal and a relatable feeling, So we played both within and outside of the normal rules.

In contexts where phones were most likely to be dropped; malls, the commuter rush hour and music venues, each execution was bespoke and dramatic.

• In the underground DEPs ‘rolled’ phones down escalators, bouncing down the screens.

• we used lenticular motion-detection technology so that the poster screens “cracked” as commuters walked by.

• We smashed up the Waterloo Motion, UK's biggest screen.

It took a lot of persuasions to get contractors to meddle with their precious inventory but in the end, we created new formats:

• Billboards were taken off their hinges and were left hanging off their fittings

- Fake billboards were created, fitted and then smashed

- A dedicated campaign was created for music venues; a place where phone breakages are common due to hand waving and alcohol.

A high impact two-week UK-wide OOH campaign in hit consumers, underground, press and digital formats were deployed.