Focused EE Samsung launch drives best ever sales and raises EE to #1 in Europe

Client: EE

With the launch of the new Samsung S21, Essence was tasked with category share to position EE as the number one network for consumers. With the launch of the new model set for 14 January 2021, we needed to deliver the most effective communications to drive sales in the first quarter of the year.

Our biggest challenge was convincing audiences to switch to a plan more expensive than competitors. Identifying the highest propensity audiences, for both the EE and Samsung brands, plus those who were most likely to upgrade at the time of launch, would form the foundations of our solution. We needed to balance a targeted approach with enough scale to cut through the category, all of whom were in market at the same time and all running with similar messaging. Heavily scrutinising audience behaviours, alongside historical data, highlighted the run up to launch as the biggest opportunity for upgraders so we initially focused on those most likely to be in market with highest propensity for pre-order. Focusing our spend into two key channels, and targeting highest propensity conversions, saw a 62% increase in online orders in Q1. Over and above this we saw a significant improvement in our cost per order, year-on-year, across all digital channels: Social -63% YoY Programmatic -61% YoY YouTube -68% YoY We also smashed our key business objective, achieving sales targets to become the #1 provider in UK & Europe for pre-order and launch.