T-Mobile dances across our screens with innovative multimedia campaign

• Advertisement filmed, edited and airing within a 36-hour period
• Guerrilla-style ad creative – commuters taken by surprise at major London train station
• Takeover of entire ad-break slot in Celebrity Big Brother for three-minute advertisement premiere
• Campaign includes a host of interactive elements including a ‘red button’ function where viewers can see the making of the ad
• Dedicated YouTube site will host viral films, offer the chance for people to upload their own dance videos and act as a place for people to learn more about T-Mobile
• Celebrates and brings to life T-Mobile’s ‘Life’s for Sharing’ brand claim

T-Mobile is set to unveil a pioneering multimedia campaign this week, kicking off on Friday 16 January with the premiere of its ‘Dance’ television advertisement.

The ad, created by Saatchi & Saatchi London, features 350 dancers breaking into a dance routine en-masse at Liverpool Street station in London. The filming of the advertisement was done in ‘guerrilla-style’, with hidden TV cameras placed around the station to capture the spontaneous reactions of London commuters as they watch the dance troupe complete moves from a range of different dance disciplines including ballroom, hip hop and well-known dances from the 60’s.

‘Dance’ was filmed and edited in just 36 hours, and premieres during the takeover of an entire commercial break during Friday’s Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 4.

The 350 dancers from across the UK were choreographed by leading choreographer, Ashley Wallen. In addition, T-Mobile ran an internal competition to find four T-Mobile staff to participate in the commercial.

According to Lysa Hardy, Head of Brand and Communications at T-Mobile, the campaign will allow the company to connect with its customers in a new way: “’Dance’ brings to life the fact that there are often unexpected, wonderful, exciting things that happen that you want to be able to share with your friends and family. Sharing makes relationships stronger and richer; it’s the stories, conversations and jokes that bring us together. T-Mobile, as a leader in mobile communications, enables us to share those feelings and experiences.

“T-Mobile has a strong history of innovation when it comes to product development and customer service, but now with this campaign, we’re making an even bolder statement about the power of sharing, so everyone knows what T-Mobile uniquely stands for. This campaign allows us to let people learn a bit more about us as a company on a more emotional level, whilst showing how our products and services are always on hand to enable sharing.”

Interactive and celebrity involvement to expand campaign T-Mobile has employed a range of interactive elements to expand the campaign. Viewers seeing the advertisement on television will be able to make use of red button functionality where they can view extra footage of the making of the advertisement. T-Mobile has also created a YouTube channel where people can upload videos, and see humorous clips featuring celebrities being taught how to do the T-Mobile dance by leading dancer and choreographer, Bryony Albert.

In late January, some of the dancers from the television advertisement will take to the road on a tour of major cities throughout the UK.

Internal competition Four T-Mobile UK staff will feature in the television advertisement as dancers, following the December rollout of an internal competition. Staff around the country were encouraged to create videos of themselves dancing. The videos were then judged by the director and choreographer, and the finalists have attended a dance ‘boot camp’ run by Bryony Albert in preparation for filming the advertisement. Ongoing campaign rollout Following the premiere of the full-length advertisement tomorrow night, a 60-second version will run for two weeks, followed by a series of advertisements which start to weave in more specific product and price plan information.