AT&T: IT'S NOT COMPLICATED

This campaign had just broken when I arrived at BBDO. At the time, the category was embroiled in the map wars which were characterized by claims, counter claims and hyperbole. This was a war that we were unlikely to win given that network performance has been owned by Verizon for some time. However, Verizon had a very real chink in their brand armour - whilst they were highly respected, they were not liked. AT&T was far more likable and so, if we could find a way of delivering our network message in a more likable and engaging way, we felt we had a very good chance of taking the high ground in the map wars. 

The creative solution was to employ the disarming charm of kids talking about why bigger is better than smaller, why faster was better than slower etc. These discussions were brilliantly curated by Beck Bennett. Huge credit has to go to the client who allowed us to shoot with a sample script and let us see where the conversations went with the kids. I would say that 80% of the scripts that ran were unscripted. 

When I joined the account, we had launched the first 4 commercials. My focus in my first year on the business was helping protect and nurture the campaign. I think it ended running for about 18 months, which is a veritable advertising marathon for AT&T. We managed to extend it to key events, like Mother's Day, and leveraged it for our big March Madness sponsorship. 

One of my regrets is that we didn't evolve the campaign for longer. It was often referred to as the kid's campaign, but the real equity we should have nurtured was the notion of "it's not complicated". Kids was just one way of executing this strategic thought, but I am sure there were many other ways to bring this thought to life. On this occasion, my powers of persuasion were clearly not quite up to the task.