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Fix Britain’s Internet

Harnessing a groundswell of public support

The Challenge

Gather public support for Fix Britain’s Internet’s cause — a better broadband experience — by pushing a regulatory body to remove their monopoly on the broadband infrastructure.

The Insight

Rather than blanket the UK with a mass-broadcast campaign message, we researched every audience and defined their needs, actions they may take, and behaviours.

The Solution

We won! Due to the public response to the campaign, the regulator announced plans to reform the companies controlling the broadband infrastructure in the UK, which will lead to better broadband for everyone.

How can a coalition of Internet providers join together with a mission to improve broadband across the UK?

By pushing the regulatory body known as Ofcom to remove the monopoly that a single company has on the broadband infrastructure. 

Blue State helped with a data-driven digital campaign to gather support for the cause, which led to Ofcom submitting a notification to require the legal separation of the entities controlling the broadband infrastructure — paving the way for better service for all.

Testing to the nth degree

After researching every audience, we prioritised eight groups most likely to support our cause, including gamers and people living in rural communities. We then tested two creative identities: “Better Connected Britain,” representing optimism; and “Fix Britain’s Internet,” conveying urgency. Fix Britain’s Internet performed better by 30%, an empirical result which helped secure consensus across the client coalition.

Next up: testing copy, imagery, audience segments, and time of day. The two main test learnings were that geographical content and gamer-specific content were the most cost effective. Learning this allowed us to create bespoke content for the gaming audience of young males (18-24), featuring a popular influencer to offer authenticity and increase reach.

Making the case with data

It’s one thing to tell Ofcom that the campaign is building support — it’s another to show it with real numbers. Along the way, we kept a performance dashboard showing real-time success of the campaign and enabling us to forecast future results and identify needed optimisations. Data isn’t just about numbers, as we showed responses from the community, such as “If our Internet stops working less than five times a day we consider ourselves lucky,” and “I have had better Internet connections in remote jungles in Cambodia than in Cornwall or Wales.”

Strength in numbers

Supporters were able to send a message to their MP at the same time as sending an email letter to Ofcom. This allowed the campaign to show members of parliament that constituents wanted better Internet, and gave us regional breakdowns of people taking action — with Scotland in particular showing a high response.

Results

  • 1 email per minute on average throughout the campaign
  • 103,870 emails to Ofcom, one of their highest responses ever
  • 80 micro-campaigns, each one targeted to a specific audience
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