Kids can smell educational content a mile off, so 2degrees decided to sneak phone safety messages to first phone users using their own language.
2degrees’ reputation has long been to fight for fair and in 2023, it took that ethos to redefine the way young Kiwis engage with their first phone.
Around 96% of Kiwi kids will have a smartphone by the time they are 16 and while statistics show most parents understand how important this device is to their child, 71% feel they don’t know how to navigate conversations around online safety.
And with dull education content, ineffective app restrictions and safety advice, and savvy kids getting around “walled gardens”, the need to instil good phone behaviours was clear.
2degrees seized its opportunity to empower both kids and their parents and to bring these important safety messages to life with the First Phone Programme.
The campaign challenge was to provide educational content to first phone users without them realising it –
delivering vauable lessons in disguise.
Every element was unbranded and used language, aesthetic and street culture to entertain and engage kids, packaged up into something they’d want to listen to and felt they’d discovered on their own.
Unboxing your first phone isn’t typically seen as a big deal, but the programme gives an experience that teaches the good and bad things about devices and the online world.
The box contained 10 key lessons around online safety, endorsed by Netsafe, scannable digital content, including the 2degrees music track, a contract for families to agree on healthy phone habits and collectible stickers.
All 2degrees stores had the First Phone box available for free, regardless of what network people were with.
The music track was a big hit for the telco, which partnered with UK grime artist Scrufizzer to create the song and music video, called Good Tings.
Unbranded media promotion of the track and music video occurred across various platforms, including Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist, TikTok and Vevo.
Acting like a true single release, 2degrees took over the streets with scan-to-listen posters close to schools and dairies, and posted behind-the-scenes content with Scrufizzer on social media.
A ‘Turn off your phone’ message from Scrufizzer ran in Event cinemas before family films, radio stations ran a partnership encouraging parents to share the good and bad ‘tings’ their children have done on their phone, influencers posted their own stories of conversations they’ve had with their kids, and finally, there were Jibbitz
for Crocs.
Campaign success is in the data, with Netsafe’s 2023 end-of-year report showing a 25% increase in people seeing conversation as a key protective action for online safety, 60,000 visits to goodtings.nz and the song itself had 93,000 engagements – with 75% of those from the youth audience.
The First Phone Programme has gone from a temporary campaign to becoming permanent initiative in 2degrees stores in May this year.
Judges’ comments
“2degrees really pushed the boundaries. Great creative concept, delivered through multi-layered, multi-channel and multi-audiences. Loved the multiple layers of touchpoints, using one campaign to appeal to different audiences.”
This was first published in the 2024 September-October NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
