Case History

A Cell Phone for everyone

Situation

As the cell phone market continues to expand, so do the number of cell phone features. Cell phone inventor Marty Cooper and “first lady of wireless” Arlene Harris wanted to create a cell phone experience that simplified the calling experience, doing away with contracts and cancellation fees while providing a cell phone that came ready to use, right out of the box, with easy-to-dial numbers, powerful speakers and live 24-hour operators who greeted you by name.

The first family of cell phones called GCP to get the word out.

Objectives

• Introduce a whole new type of cellular phone and service
• Build a “simplicity phone” category with broad appeal
• Recruit consumer evangelists to endorse our approach

Special Connections

• We had Marty Cooper reenact the first cell phone call from a New York City street for the 35th anniversary of the mobile phone.
  • The event was covered by all major media – even Saturday Night Live!
• We inserted Jitterbug as the “lead” in every news story about a competing phone service by issuing a special salute to them on the wires 30 minutes after they made the product announcement.
• Our launch of the new Jitterbug J handset in June 2009 was covered by over 50 major media outlets, including the New York Times, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, PC Magazine, and Laptop.
• We helped Jitterbug team up with the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement and launched the Jitterbug J in Red Phone to help raise awareness of heart disease.

Results

• Jitterbug dominates the space
• GCP produces average quarterly metrics of
  • +50 million impressions
  • +$5 million in advertising equivalency
• Major media darling, including New York Times, “for anyone who wants a simple, comfy cardigan of a phone”
• Client considers GCP a true business partner