Title	WIFIPENDENCE DAY
Brand	OTE
Product/Service	OTE MY WIFI - A SERVICE FOR CREATING PUBLIC WIFI SPOTS
Category	A06. Events & Experiential (incl. stunts)
Entrant Company	BOLD OGILVY & MATHER Athens, GREECE
Advertising Agency	BOLD OGILVY & MATHER Athens, GREECE
Media Agency	MINDSHARE Athens, GREECE
Production Company	FOSS Athens, GREECE

Name	Company	Position
Lazaros Nikiforidis	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Deputy Executive Creative Director
George Kanellopoulos	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Associate Creative Director
Yiannis Pallis	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Art Director
Panos Myriangos	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Copywriter
Yiannis Andriopoulos	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Account Director
Aline Bardisbanian	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Business Unit Director
Marina Triantafyllidou	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Strategic Planning Director
Yiannis Sideris	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Executive Creative Director
Kallia Vergadou	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Senior Account Manager
Effie Fotopoulou	Ogilvy/Mather Greece	Account Executive
Daphni Lokoviti	Ogilvyone Athens	Business Unit Director
George Argyrakis	Ogilvyone Athens	Account Manager
Constantina Chatzaki	Ogilvyone Athens	Creative Director
Sissy Lokoviti	Ogilvyone Athens	Senior Art Director
Olga Naltsou	Ogilvyone Athens	Copywriter
Simona-maria Konstantinidi	Mindshare Greece	Media Director
Michael Alexakis	Foss Productions	Producer
Harry Patramanis		Director

The Campaign

OTE, the biggest telecommunications provider in Greece, wanted to re-launch OTE My WiFi, a service that would give its subscribers free access to millions of hotspots worldwide. We didn’t want to launch another service, but to create a benchmark in the history of Internet in Greece. But how could we make our target audience realize the importance of this offering? The subject of public WiFi was a hot topic of debate in Greece and very often every public issues in the country are accompanied by the birth of a movement. That’s why we created a guerilla movement, fighting for everyone’s right to free WiFi. The campaign unfolded in two stages. In the first phase we created a secret movement that quickly started to spread and gain public support. Then we “leaked” a video of its members breaking into the headquarters of OTE. The video quickly went viral and hit the news everywhere. This “undercover stunt” made our audience actively engaged in a huge public conversation about their right to free WiFi. Everyone’s attention was on OTE. A cunning PR strategy unfolded for the next few days, where we led reporters and bloggers to believe that the stunt actually took place and that the brand is trying to figure out how to tackle this “PR nightmare”. Having gained the public’s interest, the second phase of the campaign burst on all media, revealing that behind the movement was OTE, with its service OTE My WiFi.

The Brief

The campaign had a double objective. On one hand it was designed to bring immediate results for OTE MyWiFi, on the other we wanted this service to be a benchmark in the history of Internet in Greece. Various focus groups and interviews with people led us to the conclusion that in order to reach these goals, we had to engage both with a specific “WiFi thirsty” audience, but also with a much broader audience that does not have the need to be online wherever they go, but appreciate the freedom that comes with a public WiFi network.

Execution

The campaign unfolded in two stages. The first was the teasing part and it lasted for 6 days. Days 1-2: Stickers and graffiti signs were placed in public places in Athens. Day 3: The movement’s blog, “wifipendenceday.org” went online Day 4: A video was leaked on the Internet, showing members of the movement braking into the OTE HQ Day 5: News media picked up the story and a huge public conversation about the brand started on the Internet. Day 6: A teaser TVC was aired on primetime television Having gained the public’s interest the second part of the campaign burst on all media, revealing that behind the movement was OTE, with its service OTE My WiFi. Day 7-Day 24: TV/Radio/OOH/Digital

The impact of the campaign on the service was unprecedented: 96% increase in WiFi spots*** 266% increase in demand* 160% increase in usage* 1646% increase in application downloads* No1 application in the Greek App Store in the days following the launch of the campaign* 70% of consumers felt more positive toward OTE** 60% of the competitors’ clients are now considering changing to OTE** The campaign scored 10% above the likeness benchmark** In addition to boosting service registrations and usage, the communication also created virality and immediate buzz for the brand. * OTE/FON internal data (Dec. 14 vs Oct. 14) ** Post Evaluation Research results by MRB (Dec. 2014) *** OTE/FON internal data (Jun. 15 vs Nov. 14)

The Strategy

Our target audience were men and women aged 18-34, computer and technology literate, equipped with data hungry devices. Focus groups found that while many had mobile data packages for their devices, they were keen on saving up the MB’s. Our starting point was the observation that when they were out of home and wanted to connect to the Internet, they always searched for a free WiFi spot first, so they could “save” their mobile data for when WiFi connection was not available. Strategically, we would promote OTE My WiFi not as another service, but as a revolution in the history of the Internet. We wanted to capture the essence that OTE My WiFi literally frees our WiFi connection from the confines of our houses. This led us to launch the service not with an ordinary campaign but with a guerrilla movement that fought for our right for free Wi-Fi everywhere.