In Australia, people on postpaid mobile-phone plans have unused data taken back by the big telcos at the end of every month – data they’ve paid for, but don’t get to use. Only Virgin Mobile is different, offering Data Rollover to customers, giving them a second chance to use it.

Data insights uncovered that, as plan sizes got bigger, so too was the volume of data being lost – the average customer had 80% of their plan unused, that’s 6.3GB of data lost EVERY MONTH.

So we created the Virgin Mobile Data Auction: the world-first auction where people’s unused data was accepted as currency to bid for big-ticket items and experiences. Running exclusively on Facebook, 30 lots were auctioned off over 30 days. Like any auction, the highest bid always won, so with every lot auctioned off we were turning the biggest data losers with other telcos into the biggest winners with Virgin Mobile.

We knew we needed a creative idea that focused specifically on the huge amounts of unused data. To do this, we created the Virgin Mobile Data Auction: the world’s first auction where people’s unused data was accepted as currency to bid for real, big-ticket items and experiences. The auction ran exclusively on Facebook, where we auctioned off 30 lots over 30 days. This ensured everyone had a chance to bid, as monthly billing cycles finish on different days. Bespoke video posts featuring the day’s ‘lot’ appeared in News Feeds just hours before the bidding time to drive interest and engagement once the auction started.

As with any auction, the highest bid always won – so with every lot auctioned off we were turning the biggest data losers with the other telco companies into the biggest winners with Virgin Mobile. By running the auction on Facebook, bidding was simple and instant – all people had to do was comment on our daily auction post with proof of their unused data. It also meant that we were also able to send a personalised, contextual message to every bidder about the benefits of Virgin Mobile’s Data Rollover at the same time.

The Virgin Mobile Data Auction was a hit, with the average winning bid being 6.1GB. This showcased that Aussies were wasting mountains of GBs each month. Every daily auction drew our audience’s attention to just how much data is stolen by the other telco companies every month. News, entertainment and tech media outlets all covered the auction, giving us earned media to a much wider audience. Just as importantly, every news story and article also spread awareness of the issue of data theft by Australia’s big telco companies and Virgin Mobile’s point of difference with Data Rollover.  

· 258% increase in traffic to Virgin Mobile Facebook page

· 160% increase in engagement with Virgin Mobile content

· 1,624,418 impressions

· 483,345 total video views

· +7% increase in brand consideration (top 2 box) among Vodafone customers (key target)

This campaign is about Virgin Mobile’s Data Rollover product, which gives its customers a second chance to use their unused mobile data.

The campaign showcases how digging into data identified the scale at which Australian mobile users were having their unused data stolen back each month. On average 80% of their data allowance went unused EVERY MONTH. This insight directly led us to creating a campaign, Data Auction where they could bid for prizes with the actual amount of unused data left on their mobile plans. This highlighted that their unused data had monetary value, which they were throwing away.

Our starting point was analysing mobile data usage to discover how Australians were actually using their mobile phones.

Data allowances had more than doubled from 2.8GB to 7.9GB over the past two years. But as we dug into the data we found an interesting dynamic at play. Despite all the extra data provided, 40% of customers are “occasional breakers”, exceeding their data limit at least once over a 6-month period (and being charged excess fees); but the rest of the time they stayed well below their monthly data allowance. Now these customers had bigger data allowances, they were seeing huge amounts being unused each month, but then they were being punished for one bad month.  

The average customer had a plan size of 7.9GB but was using only 1.6GB. That’s 80% of their plan being unused, and 6.3GB lost EVERY MONTH. That’s enough data to surf over 3000 mobile web pages alone! So it’s not surprising that when we researched this audience, they were dissatisfied – “95% wished they could hold on to unused data”.

So we specifically targeted other telco companies’ customers on monthly contract plans, the very people having their data stolen every month.

In Australia, people on postpaid mobile plans have their unused data taken back by the big telco companies at the end of every month. The average customer has data they’ve paid for but don’t get to use up by the month’s end. Only Virgin Mobile is different, offering Data Rollover to its customers, giving them a second chance to use it. In essence, any unused data is rolled into the next month, automatically, so customers can get the most out of the data they’ve paid for.

Virgin Mobile launched Data Rollover in 2015, yet it remains a strong point of difference against their competitors. Our challenge was to find a new way to talk about it and make Australia see the injustice of data theft, to prove that only one telco company truly values the data they’ve paid for – Virgin Mobile.