Telstra turned their public phone network of over 15,000 public phones into Australia’s Hotline to Santa, sending hundreds of thousands of Aussie kids (and their parents) to Telstra’s public phones over a six-week period.

Using generative AI, Telstra created an activation and brand experience that almost 600,000 young Australians engaged with for an average of over two minutes. By embracing emerging technologies and owned media environments, Telstra turned an antiquated brand asset into an innovative piece of Christmas magic, which delighted parents and captured the hearts of young Australians...while educating them at the same time.

Situation:

Despite being Australia’s best network, Telstra wanted to show Australians that it was committed to not only to functionally connect Australians but to facilitate richer, meaningful connections too.

Telstra maintains a network of over 15,000 free public phone booths. One of their main purposes is for emergency calls, with over 200,000 placed from them each year.

Younger Australians, who have grown-up with smartphones do not know how to find and use these public phones.

Brief:

Drive brand love with Australians by putting a new spin on a Christmas ritual by providing children a new way to contact the North Pole. By educating young Aussies about Telstra's Payphone Network by replicating the magical experience featured in the "Hello Christmas" film through responsive AI technology.

Objectives:

Educate young Aussies about Telstra’s Payphone Network by activating their Christmas Campaign, to create an emotional connection between young Australians and our national carrier.

Christmas provides a unique opportunity for Telstra. Too often, Australian’s get so caught up in big festivities, so there’s little opportunity for more intimate moments of meaningful connection.

So, whilst the rest of Australia’s big brands amped up the extroverted opulence of over-the-top parties, Telstra saw the opportunity to celebrate a more intimate moment of connection between those who matter most.

The campaign also coincided with Summer Holidays, a time when parents are constantly looking for activities to entertain bored kids.

Average Australian households have two or more smartphones, and young children are often given them as a distraction, and as such are very familiar with using them. This, combined with covid lockdowns meaning Aussie kids were not allowed to leave home, has created a generation of children who are smartphone savvy, but unfamiliar with how to find and use the free public telephone network, which exists largely for their safety.

We created an AI Santa who provided unique, one-to-one experiences for Australian kids, available for free, exclusively via Telstra’s public phones.

This was a pioneering payphone-driven idea that invited young Australians to call Santa at his north pole workshop from the payphone on their own street. Together with their parents, young Australians could enjoy a more intimate Santa experience through a natural ‘question-response’ payphone conversation enabled by generative AI. Young Australians got to discuss their Christmas wish list, while loitering parents eagerly eavesdropped. Our integrated media and call experience drove nation-wide calls to Santa, but also created a new Australian Christmas ritual for generations to come.

The audience was twofold:

1. Caregivers

2. Young Australians aged 5-9 (Kids in “The Santa” Years)

We knew the opportunity to ‘speak’ to Santa would be hard to resist for children, but the experience had to be genuinely interactive, immersive and “real-feeling” to gain word-of-mouth from parents and exposure from the broader media, sustain interaction over the six week activation period and ultimately drive brand love.

Telstra had an underutilised brand asset in its public phones as no other telecommunication company in Australia provided this infrastructure. While Telstra made all its payphones free the year prior, no one saw the need to use them, unless stranded without a mobile phone. There was a unique opportunity to create an emotional connection by reimagining these phones.

The approach was to create an interactive AI Santa experience on Telstra’s public phones, and use word-of-mouth, and supporting comms to push Australians to try it.

Telstra’s AI Santa could be called exclusively through Telstra’s public phones by calling #46 46 46 (#HO HO HO). This ‘Santa’ could have thousands of individualized conversations at the same time, thanks to the combination of generative AI, a large language model, and Google Dialogueflow technology.

‘Santa’ would learn callers’ names, present requests and more. It was tailored to interact with younger, and neurodiverse voices.

'Santa’ could respond to all queries, as generative AI created bespoke conversations, but the system could identify inappropriate prompts and steer dialogue accordingly to ensure the experience remained safe.

Telstra have a network of over 15,000 phones, each with its own media space, making it one of the largest, untapped direct response media environments in Australia. The activation ran 24 hours a day from 16 November 2023 until 24 December 2023, on Telstra’s entire network of public phones.

The objective was to facilitate meaningful connections with Telstra & educate young Aussies about their Payphone Network at Christmas.

It worked.

- 589,680 direct, one-to-one calls placed to Telstra’s AI Santa over the campaign period (representing 1/3rd of Aussies aged 5 to 9)

- Average conversation time of over two minutes, demonstrating an immersive, interactive, realistic emotional experience.

- Total combined time spent speaking to Telstra’s AI Santa: 12,000 hours (over a year in total)

- A campaign film viewed over 1.3 million times on YouTube

- A large proportion of younger Australians were educated on how to find, make calls, and communicate using the Telstra public phone network should they ever need to.

- Over 1,000 earned media placements over the campaign period.

- Millions of social media impressions as many parents shared video or photos of their kids using these phones.