O2 launches SIM-only mobile network brand Giffgaff

By Fiona Ramsay, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Wednesday, 23 September 2009 12:01PM

LONDON - O2 is launching an online SIM-only mobile network called Giffgaff late this year.

The network is billing it as a ‘people-powered' mobile network, using customers' online recommendation activity and product innovation to reward them with money off their mobile bills. The network will be run through Giffgaff.com, where people pay an initial top up fee of £10 and receive their SIM.

Marketing for the new brand is being headed up by Kylie Evans, formerly head of marketing for ITV's digital channels, who joined O2 this summer.

Giffgaff will use O2's network but will not highlight the O2 brand. The business is being run from Beckensfield by CEO Mike Fairman, formerly head of broadband at O2.

The brand will use coloured pixel images, which Evans says will encourage customers to ‘create the brand feel themselves'.

Giffgaff, which means ‘to give and receive', will operate with a low cost base, and offers a fixed rate SIM only tariff and a range of online tools to allow members to suggest answers to each other's questions in online user groups. 

Members will be rewarded for things like referring Giffgaff to a friend, creating user-generated marketing, or voting on business decisions. The more that members get involved, the more money they will get off top ups.

The launch marketing campaign will have a digital and viral focus, developed by Albion London and Splendid Communications. SomeOne led the Giffgaff identity and Zenith the media strategy.

Evans said the agencies would take ‘a consultative role but I am hoping the majority of our marketing is driven by consumers'.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk