The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
TELUS High Stakes sells PureFibre by dramatizing failed connections in life's big moments
Instead of claiming 'fastest', TELUS dramatized cable failing in life's make-or-break moments — order volume up 8%, acquisition cost down 47%.
TELUS
What it had to solve
In Western Canada TELUS faced a shifting competitive landscape where rivals offered 'good enough' cable at lower prices, and its own messaging had leaned on claims about being the fastest. The insight was that internet only feels essential when it fails in a make-or-break moment — registering a child for summer camp, joining a critical job interview — so the campaign dramatized those failures.
How it works
In Western Canada, TELUS faced rivals selling 'good enough' cable internet at lower prices, and its own advertising had leaned on claims about being fastest. The team at Rethink concluded that speed claims blur together — internet only becomes essential when it fails in a moment that truly matters.
The 'High Stakes' platform dramatized the consequences of unreliable connections in make-or-break life moments, from summer camp registration to critical job interviews. It balanced TELUS's friendly, critter-led brand world with sharper comparative live-action storytelling, and scaled the idea across a full funnel: contextual out-of-home, social and broadcast.
The results made the case for emotion as a performance driver: perception that fiber is superior to cable rose strongly, order volume increased 8 percent, cost of acquisition fell 47 percent, and TELUS recorded its best high-speed internet quarter in company history. Effie Awards Canada 2025 gave the work Gold in Local Market Success and named Rethink Agency of the Year.
Why it lands
- Speed claims are interchangeable in a category where everyone says fastest; failure moments are not — every viewer knows the panic of a connection dropping at the wrong second.
- Dramatizing the rival's weakness made fiber's value felt before the brand said a word, so the persuasion worked on emotion rather than spec sheets.
- A full-funnel execution put the same stakes in out-of-home, social and broadcast, reaching people in contexts where the fear felt real.
- The sharper comparative storytelling sat inside TELUS's friendly brand world, so the campaign stayed on-brand while it attacked.
What it did
The work delivered TELUS's best-performing high-speed internet quarter in company history: major lifts in perception that fiber is superior to cable, an 8 percent increase in order volume and a 47 percent decrease in cost of acquisition. Effie Awards Canada 2025 gave 'High Stakes' Gold in Local Market Success and named Rethink Agency of the Year.
What you can take
Dramatize the cost of the rival's weakness instead of claiming specs: showing fiber's absence in make-or-break moments turned emotional storytelling into a performance driver.
Since then
Effie Awards Canada 2025 announced the Gold on October 24, 2025, and Rethink took the Agency of the Year title the same night. The campaign's measured effects — an 8 percent gain in order volume, a 47 percent drop in cost of acquisition and TELUS's best high-speed internet quarter — made 'High Stakes' a Canadian reference for using emotionally resonant creative as a performance driver rather than a trade-off.
Sources
- Effie Awards Canada Names 2025 Grand and Gold Winners, Marketer and Agency of the Year
- How TELUS Turned High-Stakes Moments into Record Internet Sales
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