JWT San Juan

Case Study: Centennial

Agency: JWT Puerto Rico
Planning Director: Luis Pedro Toledo

David vs the 4 Goliaths:

Puerto Rico is a 100 miles long by 35 miles wide island in the Caribbean. In this four
million inhabitants tiny territory, four powerful multinational telecommunications gi-
ants; Verizon recently acquired by Claro (the largest Latin American carrier), ATT,
Sprint and T-Mobile fiercely compete against the only 'local' mobile carrier, Centen-
nial, our client and the David of the category.

Despite being by far the smallest company in the industry, Centennial has succeeded.
Not only is it the most profitable mobile phone carrier, it has the lowest churn in the
category, it tied up with Claro (who spends 300% more advertising dollars) on top of
mind awareness and according to the consumer, it has the most memorable advertis-
ing in the category.

This is the story of how we provided Centennial with a slingshot, a stone and bull’s
eye to help it prevail over its competitors.

The problem:

Despite being the only carrier with CDMA (technology known to be less modern and
sophisticated when compared to GSM), Centennial has been able to maintain a solid
perception of having the best signal in the market. This has been fundamental to its
success story. This was about to change in 2008.

As if they had reached an agreement, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Claro (formerly
Verizon) began claiming that they had the best signal. Having its Competitors claim-
ing the same with the double, triple or even more of media investment represented the
perfect storm for Centennial.

Not willing to surrender the most important attribute in the decision process Centen-
nial asked us to help them to fight back and consolidate its leadership in the category.

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Changing Words for Antennas:

Remember the classic model of human communication and its five basic elements?
These are: the sender, the receiver, the channel, the message and the feedback.

Well, if we use this model to explain Centennial’s competitive context, we would

have to say that everyone, including Centennial was focusing solely on the channel
claiming virtually the same.

Taking the first strategic decision was therefore relatively simple: Focus on the mes-
sage and not the channel.

Unquestionably, it was vital for Centennial to step beyond the functionality of its
service, and to build upon a unique emotional relationship with the consumer to dif-
ferentiate itself from competitors. Focusing on the message, which is the most hu-
mane part of the communication process, better served our purpose.

We therefore decided to change words for antennas.

Hunger for success:

During the 90's and early 2000, Puerto Rico experienced a very healthy economic
growth that resulted in reduced unemployment, attractive job offers, and the devel-
opment of infrastructure and services. The telecom sector went from having a single
mobile phone provider to six, of which Centennial was/is one. The consumer had
very few worries, with regards to the economy,.

This changed dramatically in 2000 and ever since Puerto Rico’s economy never re-
covered. In fact, renowned local economists say Puerto Rico had been in a recession
for 3 years prior to the current economic crisis. Moreover, recovery is not very likely
to happen in the near future.

The truth is that after almost a decade of economic downturn, Puerto Ricans entering
the labor force now are facing great uncertainty. They share a more competitive
mindset and are very much aware that personal progress will not come unless re-
markable effort is made.

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This new reality has redefined the relationship between consumers and their cellular
phones. Today, this relationship is more focused on the cell phone as a fundamental
work tool and achievement device and less of a social connector. New technologies
have enabled cell phones to serve this purpose better than ever.

Over connected but under communicated:

Up to here our studies revealed the basic relationship of consumers with their cell
phones and the expectations these created. As we digged into the studies, interesting
facts surfaced.

According to some industry data, the average Puerto Rican consumer speaks on their
cell phones much more that the average consumer in the USA or LATAM. Certainly,
talking for hours is one Puerto Ricans’ main personality trait.

As we inquired deeply into the content of their conversations, even they realized that
although they speak a lot, they have little to say. And they are very much aware of
this. A Puerto Rican can talk endlessly and hold a long conversation about politics,
gossips or most anything, yet they are not adept at expressing inner emotions and pro-
found ideas.

It is obvious that for most humans talking about a soccer match or what they did over
the weekend is far easier than expressing feelings and ideas, especially if these differ
from those of others. We felt that this contrast between what is important and matters
in life and what the simple and effortless chit chatting had the potential for our future
strategy.

Words Open Doors

Communicating our ideas and feelings is crucial to success at the personal and pro-
fessional level. A person who retains his ideas and thoughts to him/herself limits its
growth potential enormously. Therefore, to succeed in all aspects of life, one has to
dare to say what one thinks and feels.

We find this is universal truth as the perfect ground on which to base Centennial’s
new brand ideology: Words Open Doors

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Now Centennial will become the telecom company that motivates people to succeed
by expressing them trough their cell phones; of course using Puerto Rico’s most reli-
able signal, Centennial’s.

This new brand philosophy leaded to a new branding campaign. The following is one
of the new ads.

A true story

Singer:
The world is full of waiters who dream of becoming a movie star, theater actor/ess or
rock star. This is the true story about how one of these waiters did it.

Kany García, today a real Latin Pop superstar and winner of several Grammy awards,
became the central character of this story when she was still an unheard of singer
about to launch her first album with Sony Music. We coordinated with Sony so that a
day after the Centennial Kany ad was aired, Sony launched her first production.

The commercial begins with a shot of a fine restaurant full of people having lunch.
While screening the full restaurant, we hear in the distance a sweet voice interpreting
an a cappella solo piece of a beautiful love song. People start noticing the sweet voice
while the camera searches for its source. As it goes through the kitchen door in
search of the person singing, where in the midst of dishes and cooks, a waitress is
spotted singing through her cell phone. The scene cuts and we see that Kany is audi-
tioning for a group of senior executives from a record company in Miami who listen
closely through some speakerphone. Kany, who is still singing is abruptly interrupted
by the president of the record label, who firmly asks her if she could travel to Miami
the following day to sign a contract.

This commercial was by far the most successful of the four aired by Centennial.

The following day, Kany’s production was released by Sony Music, and while our

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commercial was heavily broadcasted in local and cable TV, Kany’s song climbed to
#1 for several weeks on major radio stations in Puerto Rico and Latin America.

Kany, Centennial, JWT and Sony developed a close, win-win relationship that even-
tually became a powerful integrated communication brand idea, much bigger and ex-
citing than the TV ad. Just like that, Phonestar was born.

Phonestar ‘ The first vocal talent competition trough a cell phone’

Phonestar was supported with a full media platform (TV, Outdoor, Print and Radio,
Public Relationships, Internet, mobile and Mass Event) in which Puerto Ricans were
invited to audition and vote trough their cell phones.
Out of the 4000 auditions we received Sony Music chose 10 finalists; they never saw
their faces just heard their voices.
The finalists sang weekly trough their cell phones and could be heard in TV, Radio

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and Internet.
People voted for their favorite trough their cell phones, the one with the
more amounts of votes won a contract with Sony Music and revealed her face in a
sold out concert in the coliseum of Puerto Rico.
4000 people auditioned and more than 100,000 votes were submitted trough cell
phones.

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