CorpComms Magazine

T-Mobile, the telecommunications giant, has created a phenomenon with one of the most innovative advertisements ever seen in the UK.

Anyone passing through London's Liverpool Street station between 10am and noon on 11 January would have witnessed 350 dancers strutting their stuff to an eclectic mix of songs including Lulu's 'Shout', 'The only way is up' by Yazz and 1950s classic 'My girl lollipop'.

Many of those passers by were so enthused by what they were witnessing that they delayed their train journeys and joined the action.

The advertising bosses at T-Mobile are pinching themselves at the results. With 12.1 million views, the advertisement is top of the pops. It is Britain's most watched sponsored video ever on YouTube and is in third position globally. Indeed, at the time of writing, it was the 61st most watched video on the site, while more than 10,000 people have posted mostly positive comments. These include strong, basic messages like 'totally cool' and 'this is funny'.

Indeed, there are now more than 50 Facebook groups dedicated to the Liverpool Street shindig, and at least one of which has over 12,000 members. T-Mobile is suddenly one of the most talked about and trendy brands on the planet.

The company has produced the most successful corporate example yet of 'flashmobbing', the growing trend of holding seemingly spontaneous events in a public space to spread a broad campaign or particular message.

WASIK STARTED IT

The phenomenon is in its infancy. Most websites believe the first flashmobs occured in 2003, when Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper's Magazine organised a series of events in New York that were supposedly protests against conformist society.

But, as T-Mobile has shown, the corporate communications industry has been quick to adapt flashmobbing to its own needs and take advantage of its huge popularity. Not that this method is without its critics and organisational problems.

Even T-Mobile is not exempt from attacks. Flashmob purists believe that the Liverpool Street advertisement - and, even more so, the follow-up that saw 13,500 people crammed into Trafalgar Square to take part in a sing-along led by pop songstress Pink - is not really a true example of their art.

Jim Hawker, the co-founder of public relations agency Threepipe, is one of those who does not believe that the T-Mobile campaign counts as flashmobbing. 'There's confusion over the definition,' explains Hawker. 'What T-Mobile put together are customer events. These are actually very well organised and everyone [who went to Trafalgar Square] was told that they would be filmed with a superstar.'

Hawker argues that Threepipe's recent crack at flashmobbing was truer to the original spirit of the phenomenon. In May, just ahead of the Eurovision song contest, the agency set the world record for the most Abba impersonators in one place singing 'Waterloo' on behalf of client, online gambling site Betfair. Held in Leicester Square, about 200 people belted out the lyrics.

'We promoted the event in a way a flashmob should be done,' says Hawker. 'We twittered about it for three weeks and contacted flashmob Facebook groups - people who genuinely like going to these sort of events.'

Hawker estimates that 100 people came along because of the Facebook campaign, with the rest joining in on the night. The cost was just £15,000 - contrasting with six figure estimates for the T-Mobile advertisements - and Betfair increased its usual share of the online betting market for Eurovision.

And the overall impact is long lasting. Desperate to fill space with colourful stories, the Press Association filmed the event, and content from that video was picked up as far away as Italy. Radio Five and London's Evening Standard followed-up the story.

'The media like flashmob campaigns as they can get fun shots for their newspaper or magazine,' says Hawker.

PREPARATION COUNTS

T-Mobile is aware that some people might not consider their advertisements as flashmobbing. Jeremy Corenbloom, brand activation manager at T-Mobile, admits: 'The advertisements needed to be planned a long way in advance and to make something seem spontaneous actually takes a lot of planning.'

In Liverpool Street, for example, the company had to work with Network Rail for about three months in advance of filming to ensure that there were thoroughfares to allow people easy access to their trains. Cameras had to be placed at clever angles to make the station appear as if it was packed purely with revelers.

The company also had to take account of the lunchtime rush. No filming took place between noon and 2pm, after which the dancers resumed throwing shapes for two hours.

'It caught the spirit of a flashmob, of people coming together at one time,' says Corenbloom, before justifying, though not disclosing, the budget. 'The cost was similar to what we might spend on an ordinary television advert. Then, we might spend money on casting and wardrobe, which here we spent on producing a great event.'

However, it is interesting that T-Mobile will not commit itself to running any more of these events. There is a feeling that flashmobbing quickly loses its appeal. Quirky one-offs have already failed: only ten sci-fi fans turned up to a Star Wars-themed flashmob in Bournemouth on May the fourth - a play on the film's famed line May the force be with you - despite 60 confirmations of attendance.

DIMMING APPEAL

Byte Night is the IT industry's annual charity event, raising money for Action for Children. Two years ago, organisers experimented with a flashmob that was supposed to see IT leaders convene near London's Tower Bridge at 9am on a workday morning. They carried sleeping bags to raise awareness of the problem of young people facing homelessness.

'Around 25 to 30 people turned up, but, bar a couple of [Byte Night] board members, they were all from marketing and PR agencies,' sighs Barbara Gill, senior fundraising manager at Action for Children. 'It wasn't effective, and is not something that is planned to be done again, though you see the success of T-Mobile and you do wonder if it is something we should take another look at.'

The anti-airport expansion group, Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (Hacan ClearSkies), is reviewing its flashmob policy, which has seen five events in 18 months. Generally successful, Hacan chairman John Stewart has noticed that numbers of participants have started to dwindle, and so is reviewing the campaign method.

When Heathrow Terminal Five opened, for example, Hacan's flashmob was made up of about 600 people. At a more recent event, only 150 people showed up. 'Has the novelty factor worn off? Is the press bored of the events?' wonders Stewart. 'We are conscious that the flashmob is a product that might not last forever.'

Even though the stunts initially helped boost the environmentally friendly image of Dorset-based Lush Cosmetics, which provided some financial support to one of the Hacan events as well as other anti-airport expansion activities, there was a downside. There were accusations of hypocrisy when the Evening Standard gave details of the number of Lush stores found in airports around the world.

There are also some legal pitfalls, if using flashmob style events in television advertisements. Brinsley Dresden, media partner at law firm Lewis Silken, warns: 'Companies have to make sure that they think through the advertising regulations. In broadcasting advertising you must have permission from living individuals if they can be identified. A crowd shot is fine, but often there are close-ups.'

Regulators could pull broadcasting if they believe that permission has not been granted by the individual, while any complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority could result in a time-consuming and costly re-edit.

KEEP INFORMED

Dresden says that the way out of this is to ensure that anyone attending is told either at the entrance or on the social network advertising the event that they agree to the possibility of them being on television. He admits that most companies are smart enough to have this covered, though a seemingly such minor detail can be easily overlooked.

For the time being, though, flashmobbing has been skillfully adapted to corporate campaigning, and most experts believe that T-Mobile's advertisements are likely to be widely aped. However, unless well-executed and superbly organised, it could well be that flashmob advertising has a limited shelf life, as some communicators and campaigners in the charities sector have already found. 

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