Xfinity Mobile: Data in dollars

Challenge: The U.S. has some of the most expensive cellular data plans in the world. Xfinity Mobile however, is a new network designed to save people money. 

Insight and Idea: Consumers were blindly paying for data plans without having any context for how much money online content actually cost. To show how overpriced other data plans are, we turned pre-roll ads into “price tags” that calculated how much people are spending on data to watch the upcoming YouTube video.

Innovation: By working with YouTube's Data and Insights team, we were able to adjust the cost of cellular data in each film to match the length of the video the person is about to stream. The prices reflected the data costs with the viewer's specific carrier. Targeting was also a huge part of the campaign – we only showed the ads to people using 4G LTE data (not WiFi) and only if they have their phone connected with a competitor's network.

Results: The campaign increased branded search threefold and helped contribute to Xfinity Mobile’s growth to the fifth largest mobile carrier. The campaign also won 3 Cannes Lions, the YouTube Awards Grand Prix, a Clio, and a Webby Award.