Rolling out from 4 April to leverage its partnership with The Masters, tournament partner AT&T launched a twin-pronged activation approach that spanned two new Jordan Speith fronted ‘It Can Wait’ consumer commercials alongside four fresh B2B ads focusing on Edge-to-Edge Intelligence for business customers.
The Speith spots are the latest in AT&T’s ongoing campaign to get consumers not to use their mobile phones while driving.
The two ads featuring the 2015 Masters champion see Spieth use golf terminology to drive home messages about cell phones and distracted driving.
A ‘Gimmie’ ad
is paired with spot called ‘Laying Up’.
And, as well as airing through the tournament’s CBS official broadcast, the creative pieces are amplified across all the brand’s usual social channels,
.@JordanSpieth knows there are no gimmes in life, especially when it comes to distracted driving. Join @ATT and Jordan by taking the pledge to drive distraction-free at https://t.co/lGfVfPZQ4g. #TheMasters pic.twitter.com/7vlb1PRQ9b
— It Can Wait (@ItCanWait) April 5, 2018
and are also supported by a take on the classic behind-the-scenes / making-of video called ‘Jordan Spieth Shares the Importance of AT&T’s New It Can Wait Commercials’.
“You may think that quickly checking a message is the same as a ‘gimme’ putt, but it’s not,” said Ryan Luckey, AVP-corporate brand marketing said on an AT&T blog.
“On the golf course, ‘laying up’ is the smart, safe choice, just like ignoring your phone while driving.”
This is the latest wave of work in a cause campaign that began eight years ago in 2010 when AT&T made it a mission to try and decrease the number of car accidents caused by distracted driving.
Following a study published in 2010 by the University of North Texas Health Science Center, wehich said that texting while driving resulted in an estimated 16,000 fatalities in the US from 2001 to 2007, AT&T’s senior leadership committed to a company-wide effort to raise awareness of texting and driving.
Luckey said AT&T chose to Spieth for the ads not just because he’s a pro golfer or a masters champion, but because he’s authentic and committed to our mission.
“Jordan has taken the ‘It Can Wait’ pledge, and he lives it every day,” added Luckey as he described how AT&T shot the ads the morning after a PGA tournament in Los Angeles where Spieth finished 9th.
“He got up early and was out on the course for the ad shoot by 8 a.m. and was there all day,” Luckey said. “Jordan brings a tremendous work ethic and character to everything he does and did a great job.”
Simultaneously, a second activation strand saw AT&T release a set of four new business ads focusing on Edge-to-Edge Intelligence for business customers: promoting the communications outfit’s range of services and devices that business customers and consumers need.
The four ads, titled “Anthem,” “Retail,” “Healthcare,” and “Manufacturing,” provide humorous depictions of businesses using our technology and services while also showing how AT&T can help make everything work better and they continue the use of the familiar AT&T @Power of &’ theme.
“The idea is to show how AT&T services can help in all kinds of ways, from “end to end,” said Sandra Howard, vice president-corporate brand marketing.
“While other companies might be able to compete with us on specific products, our breadth of services sets us apart.” Each of the spots ends with the voiceover trailing off, adding more ways AT&T’s can help, picking “the power of &” theme.
All the new AT&T ads aired within the coverage of The Masters tournament: including on the official CBS telecast, as well as on CBS and Masters digital outlets.
The spots all debuted during a two-hour pre-tournament event on ESPN the day ahead of the tournament tee-off.
Comment:
AT&T corporate brand marketing VP Howard explained that for the company The Masters represents the “ultimate viewing experience” in part because it’s an exclusive group of advertisers.
“There are only 3 companies and one of them is AT&T. Our ads are running uncluttered, and it provides us the perfect place to highlight what we do and to kick off new campaigns,” she explains.
While it seems sensible to use this tournament sponsorship as a means of engaging both general consumers and B2B targets, to us it seems an inconsistent choice creatively to have one strand of activation actually linked to golf and the other seemingly entirely disconnected with the property being used to launched the new wave of B2B work (despite the sport and the tournament’s obvious links to and engagement with middle-aged c-suite executives).
Links:
AT&T
https://www.instagram.com/att/
https://www.youtube.com/user/ShareATT
The Masters
https://twitter.com/TheMasters
https://www.facebook.com/TheMasters/
https://www.youtube.com/user/masters
https://www.instagram.com/themasters
