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Along with ’Who’s your favourite Spice Girl?’ and ’Can I have a

Buzz Lightyear?’, one of the most frequently asked questions of 1996 was

’Who would you like to have a One-2-One with?’. Ned Sherrin devoted 20

minutes of Loose Ends to it, Terry Wogan uses it daily on his show and

Zoe Ball pops the question to every guest on Live and Kicking. It is a

reflection of how an ad campaign - even one for mobile phones - can

capture the public imagination and make a mark in a cluttered product

category.

Bartle Bogle Hegarty began work on the campaign in April last year,

aiming to build the brand while pushing the expansion of its national

network coverage.

Paul Donovan, then sales and marketing director and now the commercial

director of One-2-One, saw a need for a new focus: ’We’re in a

competitive market typified by lack of clarity. We wanted something to

distinguish us from the opposition and demonstrate the benefits of

owning a mobile phone,’ he says.

The distinguishing theme was long overdue. The original soap opera

series of One-2-One ads starring Beatrice Dalle and Robert Lindsay was

the work of Woollams Moira Gaskin O’Malley. While they captured

attention by making One-2-One the first mobile phone company to target

the consumer mass market rather than the business user, ’the mobile

phone for every day, for everyone’ theme lacked charm and the account

passed to BBH in 1995. BBH’s first ads continued the populist tack,

featuring users in everyday situations, such as girls in a bar summoning

their waiter using a mobile phone.

For Duncan Bird, a group director at BBH, the current campaign grew out

of a ’brand vision’ project. ’Our brief was to ’out the truth’ about the

brand and to develop it in a way that would break the conventions of

mobile phone advertising.’

Bird and Donovan cite the integration of those involved in the branding

research as crucial to the campaign’s success. BBH worked with the

client and with the Identica Partnership to establish what One-2-One

should stand for. ’We interviewed retailers, dealers, the public and our

own employees. The thoroughness of the approach reaped rewards,’ Donovan

says.

Research indicated the brand should present the company as a ’listening

partnership’ reflecting qualities of ’understanding and democracy’.

Initially, the agency felt the name of the company should be changed.

Among the suggestions were ’the One’ or ’the Only One’ but the answer

lay in simplicity: Mercury One-2-One became One-2-One.

The focal point for the relaunch was two ads written by Steve Hudson and

art directed by Victoria Fallon. The spots, which broke in October 1996,

featured celebrities revealing who they would like to have a One-2-One

with: Kate Moss with Elvis in 1956, just as his career was about to take

off; John McCarthy, who has his freedom but wants to ask Yuri Gagarin

about being catapulted from anonymity. In April this year, a third ad

was unveiled, featuring Vic Reeves with Terry-Thomas. All three were

directed by Mehdi Norowzian.

The campaign has been supported by teaser poster ads featuring the

strapline (which the agency felt secure enough to run without a logo),

national press ads and vox-pop radio ads. The fluidity with which the

message has been taken through the line has underpinned the success of

the campaign.

The PR agency, Larkspur Communications, has amplified the theme by

securing media coverage focusing on each celebrity. Kate Moss and Vic

Reeves have been featured in the News of the World and the middle-brow

appeal of John McCarthy ensured coverage across the daily and Sunday

broadsheets. Nine radio stations, with a total reach of 6.2 million, are

running a competition offering the prize of a One-2-One with Michael

Jackson when he tours the UK in the summer, and LBC and LNR are running

a 15-week drivetime promotion inviting listeners to have a ’business

One-2-One’ with Archie Norman, the Tory MP and chairman of Asda. Sales

promotion activity, handled by LGM, included an incentive campaign

offering new subscribers five free CDs. Press, radio and direct mail

encouraged people to have a One-2-One with their choice of artist.

Donovan describes the campaign as ’phenomenally successful’. From

January to March of this year, his company acquired 75,000 net new

subscribers - 28 per cent of all mobile phone buyers - and its share of

the market has risen from 7 per cent in March 1996 to 8.5 cent.

One-2-One is poised to announce its direct marketing agency line-up and

the resulting work will continue the ’having a One-2-One’ theme.

Colin Morley, the head of consumer marketing, says: ’We have

re-established ourselves in the market and now, with a stronger brand,

we are better placed to inform customers of benefits.’