Three have a proven track record when it comes to serving consumers, but the one area they needed to showcase their capabilities was among Irish businesses (specifically large-scale enterprises). The purchase of O2 in 2015 saw Three become Ireland’s second largest telco provider practically overnight. This spelt out great news for the B2C base, but created challenges in the B2B market.
Three were viewed more as the youthful, “All You Can Eat Data” consumer brand, rather than a business partner you could rely on, meaning businesses shied away from them when it came to something as vital as connectivity. Irish enterprises didn’t trust Three with their business, but Three were also being outshouted by bigger players with more established credentials in the business game.
Three would need to find a way to get noticed enough so customers would open their doors and listen to what they had to offer, and in turn, establish themselves as a telco that Irish businesses could truly trust.
Meanwhile, off the coast of Donegal, a small, remote island by the name of Arranmore was experiencing a sheer population decline. Lack of broadband availability meant many of the island’s younger people were leaving to seek opportunities elsewhere. The island was dying and was in dire need of something to help bring it back to life.
We wanted to demonstrate the transformative power of Three business and felt that if we could bring Arranmore up to speed internet-wise, we could help turn the island’s fortunes around. By following a ‘prove, don’t promise’ approach, we would prove that by treating an isolated community like a business enterprise, we could save an entire island from extinction.
Our first step to building a connected island was by introducing Three’s high-speed 5G network to Arranmore; making this remote island among the first places in Ireland to access this technology.
From there, we helped design a co-working business hub where local entrepreneurs could work, opening it in the island’s community centre. Innovative IoT solutions were then put in place across the entire island to help transform the fishing, health, education and environmental industries right across the board. These helped Arranmore to thrive once again, as well as greatly improved the quality of life of the islanders. We then announced to the world that Arranmore was open for business, with an open letter that invited families from all around the world to move. Our story was then told through a national campaign that was delivered across a variety of mediums – including a 9 minute documentary on VOD.
• Positive sentiment grew by 25%
• €53 million in earned media
• Cannes Gold - Creative Strategy
• Cannes Bronze - Brand Experience
• Cannes Silver - Creative Effectiveness
• D&AD Wood Pencil - Experiential
• Effies Gold - B2B
• Effies Silver - IT, Telecoms
• Caples Silver - Integrated Campaign
The campaign was a huge success for Three, becoming its best-ever performing film, and increasing awareness among the very audience we set out to reach. The Connected Island allowed us to demonstrate the transformative nature of Three’s network and technology in a unique way. We repositioned Three from the ‘little guy’ consumer telco to a robust partner for business by demonstrating its capacity to go ‘above and beyond’ for its customers. As a result, positive sentiment towards Three Business grew by 25% and the whole campaign achieved €53 million in earned media. But it didn’t stop there. The story of Arranmore made its way around the world, being picked up as far away as the USA and Australia. The campaign subsequently went on to pick up a double win at Cannes 2021 (gold in creative strategy and bronze in brand experience), a Silver Cannes Lion for Creative Effectiveness in 2022, as well as taking home both a Gold and Silver Effie, proving Three to be experts in better connection.
