O2 - Be More Dog (IMC Campaign)

O2’s foray into 4G advertising asked us "to be more dog". The overall message of the campaign is that life in the digital 21st century is amazing, there are countless things around that should amaze and inspire us, but we have become too jaded by experience to appreciate the multitude of opportunities afforded us by technology. In short, we’ve become too cat (disinterested and aloof) while we should be embracing our inner dog (energized, interested and excited by the possibilities of every day life).

“Be more dog” is the main strap line for the O2's campaign, that shows a cat behaving like an old guy, living a “boring” live until the day that he decides to go out of his comfort zone and do something different, explore his options a little more, that’s when he decides to “Be more dog”. That’s what O2 is trying to say with this campaign, that we have a lot of options so there’s no room to feel bored and using this “philosophy” they introduce the new technologies (as a way to try new things) and present their services for it.

Target Audience:

Geographic: O2 targets people from all over the United Kingdom including some major cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Manchester etc.

 Demographic: O2 targets both male and female. They have no age restrictions. The company is trying attract the corporates as well as the students.

Behavioral: O2 targets those people who are energetic and want to try something new. Upper class to lower class all people are targeted as long as they have a bright positive attitude.

Objectives of this campaign: O2 is using Hierarchy of effects model(awareness>knowledge>liking>preference>convictions>purchase) for their low involvement services  and information processing model(presentation>attention>comprehension>yielding>retention>behavior) for their high involvement services as their campaign objectives.

Advertising: O2 has released an inspirational spot, “Be More Dog,” telling a story of a cat that one day decided to experience the life in the canine way. For people, switching to the “be more dog” lifestyle means letting more positivity, excitement, inquisitiveness and new technology into their lives. O2 has rolled out a website, BeMoreDog, where it invites the audience to “embrace their inner dog,” see all the exciting things out there and start living their life to the full.

“Dogs are right to be excited. There are so many things to explore, experience and play with. So why does everyone seem so bored?” the brand asks on the site. Visitors to the hub are also invited to create their own mini spots, Dog Bombs, from just three suggested elements—the introductory phrase, select a grumpy “cat-like behaviour” video of a few seconds and a happy dog mini clip. The spots can be shared over social media sites.

O2 is also encouraging the audience to use a #bemoredog hashtag to create buzz around the marketing effort. There’ll be also a new portion of content for social media platforms to “target, inspire and reward dog-like attitude.”

Interactive Marketing: O2 is using lots of internet and mobile marketing in this campaign. They are using their own website to stay connected with customers. They are maintaining fan pages in the most popular social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. Those tools can help the company to stay close to their customer. They are also using mobile app to create experimental marketing of this campaign. Last but not least, they have done a superb job by maintaining the website http://bemoredog.o2.co.uk/

Public Relation/Publicity: O2 currently sponsor the England rugby team, and in 2003 launched a mobile video service allowing customers to download or stream video content related to the 2003 Rugby World Cup. In 2005, Telefónica O2 extended their involvement in rugby union, signing a new deal with the England rugby team and the Rugby Football Union, as well as O2

rugbyclass and Premier Rugby Ltd for the English Premiership. Additionally, Telefónica O2 had a long-standing relationship with Arsenal F.C., being their shirt sponsor until the end of the 2005/2006 season. In 2005, a three-year deal was signed that saw Telefónica O2 become the team's exclusive Mobile Communications Partner. O2 sponsor the O2 wireless festivals in London and Leeds each year.

O2 is a leading telecommunications company with over 1.5 million customers as of July 2013. O2 offer consumers Bill Pay, Prepay, SIM Only and Mobile Broadband products, all of which can be bought online. O2 also offers existing customers an online interface where they can check their bill or credit use and view product information. They work with leading media agency Mediavest to

advertise their products online. A key objective for O2 is to drive new customer acquisition for their Prepay SIM product. To do this effectively through display advertising would require a thorough understanding of the demographics and online behavior of existing customers in order to target similar people, who are not existing O2 customers. Over the past five years there has been an explosion of new products and plans offered by highly competitive telecommunications providers. This means that the vertical is highly congested, with many advertisers trying to attract the same people.

Personal Opinion: O2's Be more dog campaign is the world’s one of the most successful IMC campaigns. It has won Campaign Magazine’s campaign of the year award for 2013. The most successful part of this campaign is advertising and sales promotion. Here in this campaign they achieved a vital success through societal marketing. I feel that, as the campaign is running successfully, they should keep on doing this and that might bring better results in the future.


Reference: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB8dD9c5AgA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfX71XoPs2o
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/07/05/ad-day-o2-be-more-dog
http://popsop.com/2013/07/o2-encourages-british-consumers-adopt-more-positive-more-dog-attitude/
http://www.retail-week.com/topics/marketing/campaign-of-the-week-o2-turns-its-be-more-dog-spotlight-on-priority-app/5060521.article

http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/2014/05/15/o2-launches-new-7m-be-more-dog-ad-campaign-for-priority-app/

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/04/o2-cat-ad-be-more-dog
http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/integrated-marketing-communications/three-examples-integrated-campaigns/
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1224596/