Telstra injects brand personality via stop-motion ads

A series of stop-motion animated ads are part of a major mission to inject personality into Australia’s biggest telco.

Telstra's network campaign showcases the telco's coverage across Australia with 15-second animated films. It was created by +61

Telstra is on a journey to redefine its brand and inject some personality into the business, according to chief marketing officer Brent Smart.

Mr Smart, who is 16 months into his tenure as chief marketing officer at Australia’s biggest telco, told The Growth Agenda Telstra was guilty of placing too much emphasis on its competitive retail strategy at the expense of the brand, which he was keen to rectify.

“I think a lot of people judge Telstra, based on the brand it used to be, not the brand it is today,” Mr Smart said.

“There’s this big gap between how our customers feel about us, and how non-customers feel about us. I believe, if you want to change how people feel about the brand, you need to change how the brand feels.

“We’ve been working hard to give the brand more personality, to make the brand more humble, more personable and more likeable.

“And these are all hard things to do when you are a really big brand. So we’ve been working really hard to inject that personality into our brand and you saw it with the Footy Country work, with our Christmas work, and I think it’s all come together with our new network work,” Mr Smart said .

The network campaign, Better on a Better Mobile Network, comprises a series of 15-second stop-motion animated ads which showcase the reach of the telco’s network by highlighting specific locations around Australia.

The 26 ads were directed by Revolver’s Jeff Low and animation director Tobias Fouracre, who worked with a crew of puppet makers, puppeteers and set designers. The ads deliver humour and an irreverence that is a bold direction for the Telstra brand.

Mr Smart attributes the new brand personality to the unique agency model that he has created in +61, an agency collective which includes small independent creative powerhouse Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, advertising agency TBWA and media agency OMD.

Mr Smart said the collective, which operates under one commercial agreement, was not three agencies working together but one integrated team. This approach, he said, was evident in the network campaign, which delivered an entertaining demonstration of the brand’s product, while exhibiting a strong understanding of the environment the work would appear in, particularly the BVOD and CTV environments.

“Someone said to me when I took this job, you won’t get fired for making a great network ad at Telstra. So the idea was to talk about our network, which is our differentiator, but do it in a way that isn’t boasting about how big the network is, or talking about rational things like coverage and speed, we wanted to do it in a really entertaining way,” he said.

“The plan was to make enjoyable little 15-second breaks from most of the average advertising that surrounds it.

“I think where these ads are going to be at their best is a viewing experience, where you have multiple exposures and you’re not subject to that same ad every time and you can see different versions of these little ads. I think it’s going to keep it really fresh and surprising. These are purpose built to be short, sharp and entertaining. They have a very simple message.”

He said the ads took seven months to create.

“We’re in this sort of fast, reactive, real-time digital world.

“That’s cool, there’s lots of things that you need to make at the speed of culture. But sometimes you want to bring a level of craft and that takes time.

“It’s a luxury not many brands could afford.”

Telstra maintains dominant market share with over 60 per cent of the telcoms market, according to consultant Paul Budde.