Telco Skinny Cleverly Outsources Its Radio Ads to New Zealanders with Colenso BBDO

To avoid expensive celebrity voice talent and pricey recording studios, the Kiwi telco has launched ‘Phone It In’, a low-cost campaign that lets Kiwis record Skinny radio ads on their mobile phone, for free.

Hundreds of Skinny radio scripts have been published around the country. From standard placements like billboards and regional newspapers, to takeaway coffee cups, bar coasters, movie screens, 3 a.m. TV ad slots, social, and a street poster blitz. 

Each script comes with an 0800 number that takes callers to the automated ‘Skinny Radio Ad Recording Service’ (which is essentially an answering machine). From there, the recordings are given the trademark Skinny mnemonic and dispatched as radio ads.

Each script is written to be contextually relevant to its location, leading to bespoke placements around the country.

The end result is an out-of-home campaign, that doubles as a radio campaign, that triples as a cost-effective way to tell the nation about Skinny’s incredible mobile network and low prices.

“When a brand pays a couple of million bucks for Morgan Freeman, that cost is ultimately passed on to the consumer. That’s not how Skinny rolls. So instead of expensive celebrity voice talent, we’re open sourcing our radio ads so that anyone in New Zealand can record them on their mobile phones for free. This is a truly interactive campaign, and we’re excited to see what gets created,” says Colenso CCO Si Vicars. 

Says Ally Young, brand lead at Skinny: “Skinny have always found ingenious ways to keep prices low, and customers happy. Recruiting Skinny fans across the nation to become the voices of our brand is just another way we save our customers money, and showcase how much New Zealanders love Skinny. We can’t compete on advertising spend, so we’re always looking for super smart ways to be efficient, and showcase Skinny’s standout sense of humour.”

“‘Phone It In’ is a brilliant example of creative and media collaboration. Each placement was thoughtfully chosen and given its own contextually relevant script, to be then brought to life by the voices of the public,” says Amanda Palenski, creative integration lead, PHD.

The campaign will also be supported by an integrated radio partnership with Jono & Ben. Skinny has a track record of saving customers money through smart and thrifty advertising hacks, and was awarded the coveted WARC Sustained Growth Grand Prix at Cannes this year.