T-Mobile - Communications Department of the Year
Company: T-Mobile , Bellevue, WA
Company Description: As America's Un-Carrier the new T-Mobile is redefining the way consumers and businesses buy wireless services through leading product and innovation. Since merging with Sprint in 2020, the Company also has the first & largest 5G network available, delivering outstanding wireless experiences for customers unwilling to compromise on quality and value. Headquarters are based in Bellevue, WA.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications Department of the Year
Nomination Title: T-Mobile Corporate Communications and Community Engagement Team
To say that T-Mobile’s Communications & Community Engagement team is nimble is an understatement! They spent nearly two years managing messaging and strategy around the massive merger with Sprint, which closed on April 1, 2020. The merger included hundreds of milestones that each required a measured communications approach. The team then skillfully navigated the integration of two disruptive brands, 98 million consumers and 75,000 employees nationwide.
But that’s not all. Amid the excitement of launching the New T-Mobile, the team also supported the exit of a popular CEO and transition to a new CEO and senior leadership team. As if this weren’t enough, the organization also expertly navigated the COVID-19 crisis (including a sudden transition to a remote workforce), a rising racial justice movement and a round of natural disasters.
Through it all, the group stayed focused on delivering big results aimed at becoming #1 in customer choice and #1 in customers’ hearts. Top talent rock stars across PR, brand reputation, social media, internal communications and more worked tirelessly to share stories about T-Mobile’s kick-ass strategy: unlocking the massive scale of a combined New T-Mobile, building the world’s best 5G network, and delivering the best experiences.
Though 2020 had some unexpected twists and turns, T-Mobile’s C&CE team continued to support the company’s vision, focusing on three objectives:
Supercharging the Un-carrierwith merger commitments including lower prices, a faster/better network, home broadband and brand moments like 5G for Good; integrating 80,000 employees nationwide and amplifying a new senior leadership team.
Radically redefining network perceptionto build the world’s best 5G network by turning combined network and spectrum assets into an unmatched experience; proof of network quality is in our churn … the lowest of all national carriers in 2020!
Driving success for new and emerging business successby creating momentum around T-Mobile for Business, including IoT; engaging with analysts.
These came on top of managing broad issues with significant impact on the news environment and business: the COVID-19 pandemic; the racial injustice movement; and natural disasters.
Despite this, the C&CE team delivered bold and disruptive moves.
Scam Shield:The first Un-Carrier move as the New T-Mobile took on scams and robocalls to protectcustomersfor FREE.The team rolled out an announcement video with T-Mobile leaders and actor Anthony Anderson, as well as live media Q&As. https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/bye-scams-and-robocalls-hello-serious-savings
Project10Million:The $10.7B initiative is aimed at delivering internet connectivity to millions of underserved students for free. The team publishedCEO videos that included education experts. https://www.t-mobile.com/news/community/tmobile-launches-project-10million-initiative
Stay Healthy Together: Launched to navigate T-Mobile employees into a COVID-19-created remote work environment, this employee campaign leveraged email, videos, programming, internal platforms and traditional signage with catchy - yet effective - reminders.
Regardless of the challenges that 2020 brought, the team stayed true to its reputation as it rolled out bold moves with unique strategies. The team doubled down on earned media but also incorporated more owned and paid media tactics and executive thought leadership – increasing newsroom content by 43%, with views up by 33%, and earning nearly 60 million impressions in non-owned media from thought leadership content and campaigns. This led to big results:
T-Mobile led the way among industry competitors in top-tier media positive sentiment (93%)
T-Mobile punched above its weight in top-tier share of voice vs. market share – 33% of top-tier market share to lead industry where it has 30% of market share (#2 behind Verizon)
The 2020 campaigns also achieved great results:
Scam Shield Un-carrier move: Announcement video and live media Q&A resulted in 1,504 pieces of media // 101+ million impressions. Coverage was 100% positive to neutral and in the first three weeks and T-Mobile saw a 1700% increase in activations for Scam Shield. https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/bye-scams-and-robocalls-hello-serious-savings
Project10Million: CEO and education expert video, broad earned media outreach, paid, placed and owned media resulted in more than 1,100 pieces of media, 58 million+ impressions, 100% key message penetration and 100% positive to neutral tonality. https://www.t-mobile.com/news/community/tmobile-launches-project-10million-initiative
Stay Healthy Together: Leveraged 45,000+ intranet visits; 17,000 unique visits. As the narrative shifted to mental health and benefits offerings, the team added in tactics like panel discussions, Slack conversations, and created our MagentaKids community to support and engage employee parents.
T-Mobile/Sprint Merger:
press release https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-sprint-one-company
CEO blog https://www.t-mobile.com/news/community/we-are-with-you
5G for Good: New T-Mobile Un-Carrier 1.0: 5G for Good | T-Mobile & Sprint Merger (t-mobile.com) https://www.t-mobile.com/5g/new-t-mobile-uncarrier-1-0
CEO, Mike Sievert Blog on 2020: Seeing Growth, Change and Opportunity in a ‘Year of Missing’ | T Mobile Newsroom (t-mobile.com) https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/ceo-mike-sievert-2021-the-year-ahead
5G Network Expansion: T Mobile is First with 5G in all 50 States! Customers Get 5G Coverage in Alaska Through GCI Partnership | T Mobile Newsroom (t-mobile.com) https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/tmobile-5g-in-alaska-through-gci-partnership
Scam Shield:
https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/bye-scams-and-robocalls-hello-serious-savings
https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/scam-shield
T Mobile Unveils Latest Un carrier Move: Scam Shield — A Massive Set of Free Solutions to Protect Customers From Rampant Scams and Robocalls | T Mobile Newsroom (t-mobile.com) https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/scam-shield-protects-customers-from-scams-robocalls
Project10Million:
press release, https://www.t-mobile.com/news/community/tmobile-launches-project-10million-initiative
Video https://www.t-mobile.com/business/education/project-10-million?cmpid=TFB_RAD_P_20TENMM_OU0ZJSRRLLM0FYL758187
T Mobile Launches Project 10Million, Historic $10.7B Initiative Aimed at Closing the Homework Gap and Connecting Students to Opportunity – for Free | T Mobile Newsroom (t-mobile.com) https://www.t-mobile.com/news/community/tmobile-launches-project-10million-initiative