Title	WHY A TELECOM OPERATOR STARTED SELLING SUNSCREEN
Brand	SCARLET
Product/Service	TELECOM
Category	A06. Financial Products & Services, Commercial Public Services, Business Products & Services
Entrant	BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Additional Company	SCARLET Brussels, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Toon Vanpoucke	BBDO Belgium	Art Director
Morgane Choppinet	BBDO	Creative
Sebastien Devalck	BBDO	Creative Director
Arnaud Pitz	BBDO	Creative Director
Klaartje Galle	BBDO	Associate Creative Director
Jan Van Brakel	BBDO	Strategic Planner
Laura Deknock	BBDO	Content Strategist
Jan Schraeyen	BBDO	Social Content Producer
Catherine Deblock	BBDO	Account Director
Pauline Verboomen	BBDO	Account Manager
Nicolas Van Poeck	BBDO	TV producer
Raygun	Raygun	Sound production
Ketchum	Ketchum	public relations & marketing agency

The Campaign

Scarlet introduced: The Scarlet Snorkel set. And the Scarlet Sunscreen. People could order the new products online, in their pop-up store and even in travel agencies. It left people wondering: Why would a Telecom provider like scarlet, sell products that have nothing to do with their company? After a week of promoting on TV, social, outdoor and more, the C.E.O of Scarlet himself revealed why they sold them: Because they needed to find another way to make more money, now they had cut their roaming charges. Because no more roaming charges also meant less income for Scarlet. And everyone knows, Telecom operators only think about making cold hard cash off the back of their clients. Ironic? Just enough to make people aware Scarlet cuts their roaming charges.

Campaign Success

In the first week of the campaign, Scarlet really produced their own snorkel sets and sunscreens and promoted these new products on TV, pre-roll, social, banners on sites and specific travel booking sites, outdoor and even sampled their sunscreen in airports to reach as many Belgians as possible. People could buy the products in their own pop-up shop, travel agencies or their online shop. After the first teasing week, the C.E.O of Scarlet revealed why they’ve sold them in pre-rolls and on social. After the revealing, Scarlet adapted all their media with the message they had cut their roaming charges.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Scarlet had the most successful month since they were founded 8 years ago. They more than doubled their sales with 122% compared with the same period last year!

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

With this campaign, Scarlet wanted to promote that they were the first operator to cut their roaming charges, and convince people to become Scarlet client.

Scarlet started the campaign with a teasing fase where they’ve let people believe they were really selling holiday products. Scarlet targetted as many Belgians as possible by using a lot of media. This confused a lot of Belgians, because why would a Telecom operator sell these products that had nothing to do with their company? In the revealing fase, Scarlet explained why, and adapted all their media to the message they were the first operator in Belgium to cut their roaming charges. Because Scarlet was the only operator to drop their roaming charges, they had to look for other revenue for the holiday season. The true nature of the campaign was clear: "Scarlet cuts roaming charges, but we must also be able to earn something" The entire campaign is is very much tongue-in-cheek with a firm wink to the entire telecoms sector.