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One of the press ads in the £2.5m brand campaign, the first for Phones4U by agency Adam & Eve, was pulled after The Scout Association complained about its depiction of a Scout leader as grumpy, balding and unpopular. The story was picked up by BBC News online and has since spawned several headlines and spoof ads on the web.

'You can't buy publicity like that,' crows Braterman. 'I was surprised at the scale and speed of the reaction to a single ad in Metro, but it is absolutely better to be talked about than not talked about.'

His response stems from a mission to boost the brand awareness Phones4U generated with its ads featuring the characters Jack, Scary Mary and Lazy Bob over the past five years. The 'Jack' campaign ranked as one of Marketing readers' most irritating ads of 2008, but also scooped a Marketing Society effectiveness award.

Braterman says an 'in-your-face' element is still essential for Phones4U to engage with its target market of 16- to 24-year-olds. He insists the backlash over the Scout leader ad shows that the brand is 'hitting a nerve' with the establishment and positioning itself correctly to talk to its youth audience with an authoritative tone of voice.

Phones4U has, in the past week, grown its market share of new retail contracts by 1% to about 24%, which is, according to Braterman, in part, a response to the new campaign. Its market share of the core 16- to 24-year-old age group is about a third.

Braterman comes across as honest and fresh-thinking. In addition to his role at Phones4U, the lanky 36-year-old is also a hotelier on the side. He says co-running Kemp Townhouse, the only five-star-rated boutique hotel in Brighton, with his partner, helps to clearly separate his work and home life - although the down-side is that he is often forced to drag a suitcase on his way from Phones4U's Stoke offices to meetings in London.

Putting aside doubts over the location of Phones4U's headquarters, Braterman took up his role in November after three years as an independent management consultant. Phones4U's informal working culture appealed after the discipline of his early career: following a maths degree and business school, he spent three years at McKinsey & Co and undertook consultancy work for big businesses such as Cisco. Braterman says his current role feels like a 'free world of marketing', particularly after McKinsey. 'Some people like that,' he adds, 'but it is not a creative environment.'

The McKinsey rigidity is in stark contrast to Braterman's energetic personality. He is, he admits, 'easily bored', which led him to seek a more creative role after various consulting projects and a spell in Germany. This restlessness generated some interesting work, from building business development capability for Cisco regional account teams to creating climate-change action plans for the TV, film and theatre industries with the London Mayor's office.

Braterman will be happy to stay in his current role as long as he is 'constantly challenged'. He has moved quickly to stamp his mark on his Phones4U territory, having taken on the job following the departure of Jim Slater to coffee chain Costa after four years at the company. Braterman reviewed its advertising almost as he walked through the door, and subsequently hired ambitious start-up Adam & Eve to the business.

The latest campaign is not the first time Braterman's marketing has drawn criticism. In March, Phones4U banned men from its flagship stores to launch Sony Ericsson's C905 Pink mobile. Critics suggested the approach was sexist and patronising, but Braterman claimed it was a response to research that found 46% of women wanted a less male-centric and intimidating shopping experience.

He says Phones4U's mass-market youth audience can also feel intimidated by tech-nologically 'slick brands' such as Apple and Vodafone, and that its customers 'may not be taken seriously' by other mobile chains. Braterman claims this is where Phones4U can differentiate itself from rivals. 'We pay attention to these people,' he says.

Phones4U is still grappling with a reputation for pushy sales staff, however. Last year, regulator Ofcom slammed it for breaching consumer protection laws after a six-month investigation found some staff were failing to provide customers with a refund when they returned faulty handsets and lying about both network coverage and what was included in their mobile phone plan. Phones4U has given legally binding assurances that such practices have stopped, but Braterman admits that there is still work to do to improve its reputation, and that of the wider mobile industry. Proper training of its sales staff has been Phones4U's priority in recent months; Braterman has also been keen to improve in-store marketing material and press ads to promote deals clearly and professionally.

Phones4U also has a lot of catching up to do. It has significantly fewer stores than its biggest rival - 450 to the 800 of Carphone Warehouse. The latter has also been better attuned to the demands of technologically-savvy consumers, investing significant time to woo Apple and secure the iPhone sales deal. It has also heavily promoted mobile broadband and free-laptops-with-mobile deals, giving consumers a reason to upgrade their handset and helping bolster sales in a saturated market. The heat on the high street will increase next year as Carphone Warehouse launches its big-box Best Buy consumer electronics stores.

Braterman admits the competition from Carphone Warehouse, in particular, is 'fierce', and marketing plans are kept tightly under wraps to prevent rivals from reacting to them. However, he insists that Phones4U can be more flexible due to its tightly focused target market. He dismisses rivals' recent marketing as 'wallpaper' lacking 'energy and standout'. Standout is key to Phones4U, which is 'outspent 10 to one' by the big mobile operators, he says.

Even before the launch of the latest ads, Braterman expected criticism for what he described as the non-conformist theme of the campaign, as, unlike Carphone Warehouse, which must be 'all things to all people', Phones4U was not afraid of offending 'Middle England'.

He is now hoping that a marketing strategy that is aggrieving the mainstream constituency, and The Scout Association, is making Phones4U's target audience sit up and take notice.