Title	RAIN WI-FI
Brand	TELE2
Product/Service	RAIN WI-FI
Category	A08. Innovative use of Technology
Entrant	GEOMETRY MOSCOW, RUSSIA
Idea Creation	GEOMETRY MOSCOW, RUSSIA
PR	MARIA SHAKHOVA PR AGENCY Saint Petersburg, RUSSIA
Production	BC COMMUNICATIONS Saint Petersburg, RUSSIA
Additional Company	STUDIO 2.35 Moscow, RUSSIA

Name	Company	Position
Maria Kovaleva	Geometry	Chief Executive Officer
Howard Smiedt	Geometry	Chief Creative Officer EMEA
Oleg Tumanov	Geometry	Geometry Moscow Executive Creative Director
Oleg Sergeev	Geometry	Art Director
Elena Solovyeva	Geometry	Copywriter
Anastasia Tumanova	Geometry	Head of Art
Vladimir Blagiy	Geometry	3D Designer
Nikolay Popov	Geometry	3D Designer
Dave Gold	Geometry	Art Director
Olga Belyaeva	Geometry	Head of Strategy & Planning
Olga Kazmina	Geometry	Planning Director
Alexey Kostenko	Geometry	Account Director
Tatyana Simakova	Geometry	Account Manager
Maria Shestaeva	Geometry	Account Executive
Larisa Vasilyeva	Geometry	Traffic Manager
Anna Guseva	Geometry	Junior Producer
Tatiana Lovianikova	BC Communications	Project Manager
Maria Shakhova	Maria Shakhova PR Agency	CEO & founder
Dmitriy Tuprin	Studio 2.35	DIRECTOR, EDITOR
Konstantin Silakov	Studio 2.35	DOP
Dmitriy Kotovskiy	Studio 2.35	EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Inna Pokhodnya	Tele2	Marketing Director
Artem Kirakozov	Tele2	Head of Operational Marketing Department
Olga Elizarova	Tele2	Senior Operational Marketing Manager
Elena Erenkova	Tele2	Head of Marketing Department of Northwest Macroregion
Mikhail Irzak	Tele2	Head of St. Petersburg Marketing Department
Inga Volferts	Tele2	Senior Marketing Specialist
Denis Filatov	Tele2	Marketing Projects Manager

Background

In 2017 mobile operator Tele2 challenged its agency with a problem: heavy mobile internet users, the key source of business growth, did not perceive Tele2 as an attractive and suitable for them service provider. The solution to this problem was two-fold: first, there was a need to convince this demanding audience that Tele2 offers high quality connection, and second, operator’s image needed a significant uplift. Historically, the most critical situation with negative brand perception was in St. Petersburg – Russia's second-largest city. Tele2 positions itself as the only operator who puts its subscribers first and develops high quality products and services, which help people to overcome imposed restrictions and limiting rules. To bring this positioning to life Tele2 decided to create a unique experience, which allowed residents of St. Petersburg to solve day-to-day Wi-Fi connectivity issues in the city, so they feel positive changes in their lives.

Describe the creative idea

Tele2 introduced ground-breaking technological project – Rain Wi-Fi. The world's first rain-powered 4G-router that turns rain into free Internet for people who got caught in a rain. A team of engineers presented an intelligent design solution – 4G-generator. Technological innovation allows rainwater to generate electricity without losing any energy in process. The system works in four simple steps: The device is installed into a drainpipe, then the rain flow activates a turbine, which generates electricity and the 4G-router delivers Wi-Fi.

Describe the strategy

The campaign was targeted at urban residents of St. Petersburg who actively use mobile internet (chatting, watching content, playing games etc). An extensive investigation helped Tele2 to find local insights, painful for the audience: - Many of historical buildings in the city form narrow well-like courtyards. They are rather dense and uncomfortable with absolutely no 4G-connection. - This city is also very wet: 200 rainy days on average per year. When constantly running to hide from the rain in these ancient courtyards, people are mostly unable to use internet connection. Acknowledging the fact that the target audience simply can’t live without mobile internet, Tele2 installed rain-powered 4G-routers in courtyards across St. Petersburg, in the places where other mobile operators didn’t work at all.

Describe the execution

To create a truly immersive experience and a long-term interaction with the brand, Tele2 supported the launch of technological ambient devices with a digital campaign. Through SMM and online media publications we invited people to visit online promo page at rainwifi.ru to vote for locations where Rain Wi-Fi is needed the most. To date, a number of rain-powered 4G-routers have been installed across St. Petersburg and heavy mobile internet users not only get free 4G connection, but also get access to exclusive and entertaining content provided by partners. During the campaign rain-powered router has worked for 534 rainy hrs and delivered 20,5 TB of free internet including: 16000 hrs of documentaries (National Geographic), 15800 hrs of educations (WWF) and 3,6m articles (Psychologies). The campaign has got coverage across 53 SM public pages, 105 publications, 2 TV broadcasts. First phase happened from November to December 2017, the second phase – from April to June 2018.

List the results

Tele2 project gathered extraordinary results: Rain Wi-Fi attracted attention of the target audience and stimulated conversations online and offline – over 139 000 000 media impressions generated, over 130 000 people connected to rain-powered 4G- routers across the city. Moreover, 40% of those aware of the activation pointed out the positive impact of the project for the city of St Petersburg. But it’s not all. Microsoft became a partner of the initiative and powered Rain Wi-Fi routers with Microsoft Azure technology, that helps to analyze data and controls the network of gadgets. Due to Tele2’s useful technological service, St. Petersburg residents have had truly emotional and positive brand experience that has changed their perception of Tele2. Tele2’s image attribute “innovative and technological brand” has grown 2 times and the operator has achieved its main objective – to become an attractive operator for heavy mobile internet users.