Sky Mobile’s Transfer Window Sponsorship: The Perfect “Switch”
Sky Mobile’s Transfer Window Sponsorship: The Perfect “Switch”
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Increase in Talkability vs non-viewers (+20% vs Sky Sports’ Norms)
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Incremental visits to the Sky Mobile website (+14%) came from Sponsorship of the Transfer Window
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Uplift in 80GB sales vs pre-Transfer Window
The Challenge
In the league of mobile network providers, Sky Mobile has embarked on an impressive growth journey since its inception in 2016; swiftly securing 3rd position on the mobile network provider leaderboard in Sky Homes (only behind EE and 02). But with Sky Mobile’s growth trajectory starting to slow and more potential for switching than ever, intensified by the ease of “text to switch” across the market, there was both a challenge and an opportunity on the horizon.
In the lead up to the iPhone 15 launch in September 2023, Sky Mobile, needed to cut through the noise of a saturated market and make it easy for prospective customers to change mobile networks with ‘Text-to-switch’. Strong front of mind awareness would be critical to drive consideration, purchase intent and most importantly incremental sales.
The Idea
Insight revealed that Sky Mobile’s early success had happened through converting existing Sky customers – making up a massive 70% of their sales. Yet, with mobile subscriptions in only 18% of Sky Homes, there was lots of headroom for growth within Sky’s customer base. Drilling into more detail, we found 85% of Sky Sports customers and 83% of Premier League football fans used competitor networks.
By zoning in on Sky Sports’ audience to drive urgency ahead of the iPhone 15 launch, we identified an opportunity to align with football’s biggest “switching” moment – the Transfer Window. This notoriously high-tempo, time-sensitive period in the football calendar, made it the perfect contextual window to highlight the ‘Switch’ messaging before the iPhone launch.
With 1,500+ transfers taking place, worth a reported £1.9bn, UK football fans tuned in to Sky Sports News’ Transfer Window coverage as journalists, pundits and agents shared live updates on rumours and transfers. Sponsorship idents were strategically placed across the full breadth of Transfer programming like The Transfer Show, Transfer Talk, The Countdown Clock, and Transfer Deadline Day (TDD) itself, creating credible alignment with switching stories across TV and digital.
Leveraging Sky Sports News’ IP – the iconic black and yellow L-shape screen design, typography, and talent voiceovers – we crafted a contextual ‘Transfer Deadline’ TVC. Sky viewers were prompted, via a QR code, to visit a
Sky Mobile landing page where new signings could access a bespoke transfer offer: 80GB for only £18 per month for new iPhone customers if they signed up before the deadline of 23:00 on 1st September.
With transfer rumours circulating and deals confirmed by the minute, Sky Sports’ highly engaged IG, FB and TikTok accounts, were key to driving affinity with fans. We created a social series of branded ‘Switch of the Day’ updates hosted by Sky Sports talent Dharmesh Sheth and Adam Smith – updating viewers around transfer murmurs e.g. Mo Salah leaving Liverpool. We extended reach of Sky Sports News’ transfer updates across YouTube to ensure fans didn’t miss a story and embedded Sky Mobile in topical football conversations.
To get the nation talking about Sky Mobile’s Transfer offer, we tapped into the iconic Harry Redknapp – football’s greatest wheeler dealer, with a career covering over 130 player transfers (£226m!) and synonymous with TDD from his trademark interviews to SSN from an open car window in the middle of the night.. ‘Arry hit the streets of London, car door in hand, engaging potential customers through live ‘car window’ interviews on the benefits of switching to Sky Mobile on TDD.
Shared across IG, FB and TikTok, reaching 30m followers, the PR stunt stirred up 98 pieces of coverage (incl. 10 National hits) related to Sky Mobile’s switch offer.
Sponsorships are often intended to drive longer term brand metrics, but with a short campaign window and an immediate sales opportunity, we wanted to understand the campaign’s impact throughout the funnel, measuring brand out-takes, online response and incremental sales. Suffice to say, this campaign delivered incredibly well on all of those objectives. To find out more about the results, download the full case study.
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