Title	WHAT WE DO NEXT
Brand	DEUTSCHE TELEKOM
Product/Service	DEUTSCHE TELEKOM
Category	B03. Talent: Digital & Social
Entrant	SAATCHI & SAATCHI London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	SAATCHI & SAATCHI London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement	EMETRIQ Hamburg, GERMANY
Media Placement 2	WPP TEAM MAGENTA Dusseldorf, GERMANY
PR	PROUD ROBINSON Brighton, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	SOMESUCH London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 2	FACTORY London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 3	SOMESUCH Los Angeles, USA
Production 4	PAPAYA FILMS Warsaw, POLAND
Post Production	ELECTRIC THEATRE COLLECTIVE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Post Production 2	PRODIGIOUS London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Kate Stanners	Saatchi & Saatchi	Chairwoman & Global Chief Creative Officer
Guillermo Vega	Saatchi & Saatchi	Chief Creative Officer
Franki Goodwin	Saatchi & Saatchi	Creative Director
Will John	Saatchi & Saatchi	Creative Director
Mia Silverman	Saatchi & Saatchi	Creative
Francesco Grandi	Saatchi & Saatchi	Creative
Ally Dean	Saatchi & Saatchi	Agency Producer
Jodie Sibson	Saatchi & Saatchi	Agency Producer
Nayab Malik	Saatchi & Saatchi	Creative Producer
Sam Wise	Saatchi & Saatchi	Planning Director
Mathieu Abet	Saatchi & Saatchi	Planning Manager
Laura Pugh	Saatchi & Saatchi	Planning Manager
Clare Shaw	Saatchi & Saatchi	International Client Services Director
Anne Schlicht	Saatchi & Saatchi	Business Leader
Terri Turner	Saatchi & Saatchi	Account Director
Cali Fish	Saatchi & Saatchi	Account Manager
Talveer Uppal	Saatchi & Saatchi	Design Lead
Nicholas Pires	Saatchi & Saatchi	Designer
Vincent Haycock	Somesuch	Director
Elly Camisa	Somesuch	Producer
Tash Tan	Somesuch	Executive Producer
Max Harrison	Somesuch	Project Manager
Mátyás Erdély	N/A	Director Of Photography

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

We harnessed the voice of a generation, Billie Eilish, to give visibility to young people everywhere. We took the stereotypes levelled at Gen Z and put them into the mouth of one of the most dynamic music artists in the world –asking is SHE just another kid that is screen obsessed? Is this activist, this campaigner, this entrepreneur? Across social, the work showcased the passions and motivations of Gen Z on a mass scale, an AR filter allowing everyone to take part. Telekom created ‘a rallying cry for Gen Z’, withtheir product at its heart.

Background

Deutsche Telekom, like many established telcos, recognised that their younger audience was less engaged. They wanted to address that issue and bridge the generation gap. Our brief was to rejuvenate the main DT brand and do that by building an authentic relationship with Gen Z.

Describe the creative idea

Whether you’re a world-famous popstar or an activist with 500 followers, if you’re a teenager you have, at some point, been judged by an older person for being on your phone. Gen Z was being written off as a disconnected, phone obsessed generation. The idea was to challenge the judgement and insults levelled at young people and their use of connected technology by building a contradictory narrative of real-life achievements, artistry and activism by young people. We created a platform to show what Gen Z were really doing on their phones –making music, fashion and art,building businesses and campaigning for change. An idea rooted in digital optimism with a confrontational Gen Z edge, we aimed to show how vital technology was in the lives of a spectrum of young people and to encourage a conversation between the generations about what they actually ‘do on your phones all day’.

Describe the strategy

We carried out multi-market qualresearch to understand Gen Z attitudes. The more we dug into their lived experience the more we discovered a central tension which pivoted around the connected technology DT provides. On the one hand there is a familiar characterisation of Gen Z as a screen obsessed, entitled, fragile and narcissistic generation: i-Gen, a generation ruined by the combination of smartphones and social media. But on the other hand we found a generation coming together through technology to successfully tackle many universal problems that they have inherited from previous generations. Problems like the environment, racial and sexual inclusion and the rapid disruption of the world of work. This tension is felt as an injustice by our audience. Our approach was to publicly resolve this tension using an artist who more than any other in the world has come to represent the power, creativity and originality of this generation.

Describe the execution

Gen Z can spot inauthenticity a mile off so it was crucial we told real stories. We found 6 inspirational young talents, all who stood for something close to Gen Z’s heart. We created a film that brought their stories to life, heroed by the ultimate voice of their generation. We launched across 9 European markets on UN International Youth Day, kicking off with Billie Eilish sharing the film with her 68m followers. Our talent amplified the launch across their social followings and the film was shared by Gen Z worldwide. Cut downs of our film targeted Gen Z in paid social across Europe, supported by bespoke Instagram content and an exclusive BTS interview featuring Billie and our ensemble.Our second phase kicked off on 2nd September with our #whatwedonext challenge, partnering with influential influencers across Europe. Short videos spotlighting inspirational Gen Z stories were rolled out across paid media.

Describe the outcome

The campaign generated over 1 billion impressions across paid & earned media; on social media, online and PR. The What We Do Next film has been viewed over 103 Million times, resonating strongly with the core Gen Z audiences, with responses on YouTube such as “this is such an important topic, I’m proud of Billie for speaking about it” but also earned positive reactions beyond the target audience “you, kids of today, helped me open my eyes. you give me hope.”The launch of the campaign generated over 350 pieces of editorial coverage across Europe, with 100% brand attribution and 97% positive or neutral sentiment. Brand visibility more than tripled after the start of the campaign and Telekom Electronic Beats social channels saw a 14% growth within Gen Z on Instagram following and a 9% growth on it’s YouTube channel.