The Brief

In Korea’s telecommunication market, the total adult population owns at least one or more mobile devices, with the number of new users decreasing every year. It is essentially a zero-sum market, where competition is fiercer than any other category. SK Telecom is a dominantly leading operator in this market. Simply reinforcing the idea that SK Telecom is a good brand to the public was not effective or meaningful anymore. As the No.1 brand, we decided it was time to engage with each of our consumers on a personal level. Through this campaign, SK Telecom stores and sends each consumer’s very private messages for a long period of time. The period of storage, and the recipients, all vary for each person. It is marketing communication that strictly focuses on each consumer as a person, rather than devising a single marketing plan to be applied identically to the masses.

Creative Execution

To let people experience the ‘happiness of waiting’, we thought of an idea- ‘The Slowest Letter.’ A letter to the future, to be received after decades. In accord with the nature of a letter, we devised a plan to approach our consumers one by one. We developed an application. This app was launched on Sep. 16th, 2014, in every App Store in Korea- Google Playstore, Apple Appstore, and T Store, an appstore run by SK Telecom, receiving media attention from the start. Korean celebrities started joining in on the campaign, uploading photos on their social media, which we instantly reposted and shared through the SK Telecom Facebook page. With even Yuna Kim, the figure-skating star, joining in, the campaign reached its climax. Participation increased steadily and on Dec. 31st, the final day of the service, so many people tried to access the website that the servers went down.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Our target audience were consumers who had lost the ‘happiness of waiting’. People who were enjoying the fastest network speed in the world as SK Telecom’s subscribers, but who also had lost a smaller but significant kind of happiness. SK Telecom sought to return this small happiness through this campaign. The campaign was centered on a mobile application, which SK Telecom developed and managed. This app was a route for consumers to trust their private messages to SK Telecom, and a route for SK Telecom to engage and build a special bond with consumers on a personal level.

Results

- 481,868 downloads in 3 months - 167,000 letters were actually sent (34% response rate) - ‘Most preferred brand’ in telecom category increased by +4.5% (IPSOS, Oct 2014) - ‘Most preferred brand’ in LTE service category increased by +5.6% (IPSOS, Oct. 2014) - Increased user intention found online, especially on social media (“I want to use SK Telecom”) - More than 3,600,000 views for TV ad on YouTube, unusually high for brand-generated content - Received media attention through Korean celebrities’ participation, parodies on TV programs, etc. - <2014 Consumer Satisfaction Management Awards> 1st place in telecom category The campaign succeeded in achieving SK Telecom’s long-time goal- increasing brand preference. Online/mobile promotions usually garner less than 3% response average from consumers in Korea. However, this campaign attracted 34% response rate, even with the rather complicated process of registering and writing the message. SK Telecom also received an award for consumer satisfaction.