The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2022–2023
Skinny 'Phone It In': strangers record the telco's radio ads on billboards
Skinny prints radio scripts on billboards and lets Kiwis call in to record them — 2,500+ amateur ads later, customers are up 34%.
Skinny (Spark NZ) · Colenso BBDO
What it had to solve
Skinny, the low-cost mobile brand of Spark NZ, existed to keep prices low and customers happy, which meant its marketing had to be entertaining without spending like the big telcos. An idea that had relied on a prize mechanic was parked for two years, then resurrected as pure participation.
How it works
Skinny, Spark New Zealand's low-cost mobile brand, faced a classic challenger problem: it needed to be heard above much bigger advertisers while keeping prices — and marketing budgets — low. The brand's brief to itself was simple, says Colenso BBDO: everything produced had to be entertaining and start a conversation, or it did not earn its place.
The agency's answer was 'Phone It In'. Colenso BBDO wrote 46 radio scripts and placed them on out-of-home media around New Zealand — billboards, takeaway cups, cinema screens and even the wall outside a nightclub. Passers-by could call an 0800 number, read a script aloud, and maybe hear their own voice on the radio. The whole campaign was deliberately low-tech: no app, no digital mechanic, just a phone line that handled the participation and the legal sign-off inside the call.
The mechanics worked better than expected. More than 2,500 recordings rolled in, with 64 percent made by non-Skinny customers — people doing the brand's advertising for free. With no other campaigns in market, Skinny's mobile customer base grew 34 percent versus the same period the year before. The campaign went on to win the Radio & Audio Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2023, two Spikes Asia Grand Prix, and helped Colenso BBDO take Agency of the Year at the Axis Awards.
Why it lands
- Recording a stranger's ad is play, not promotion — hearing yourself on radio is the reward that replaces a paid prize mechanic.
- Billboards that double as open scripts gave every placement a second life as content waiting to happen.
- Because the cast were real customers and non-customers, the ads were authentically amateur in a category full of polished sameness.
- The 0800 line and OOH placements were cheap, so a low-cost brand could out-earn its media spend.
What it did
More than 2,500 recordings came in, 64 percent of them from people who were not Skinny customers. With no other campaigns in market, Skinny's mobile customer base rose 34 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. The work took the Radio & Audio Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2023, two Spikes Asia Grand Prix, and helped Colenso BBDO win Agency of the Year at New Zealand's Axis Awards.
What you can take
When the budget is the constraint, hand the audience the microphone: making customers the cast turns a media buy into a participation mechanic people volunteer for.
Since then
The campaign became the benchmark for Skinny's low-budget playbook and a proof point for Colenso BBDO, which collected six Axis golds across Radio & Audio, Out of Home, Direct and Craft before winning Agency of the Year. Internationally, 'Phone It In' collected two Spikes Asia Grand Prix and the Cannes Radio & Audio Grand Prix, and the case circulated as an example of how 'old-school' media — a phone line, print scripts, radio — could outperform elaborate digital mechanics when the audience becomes the production team.
Sources
- Dialling up the creativity: the story behind Skinny's 'Phone It In' campaign
- Skinny wins Grand Prix for Radio and Audio at Cannes Lions 2023
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