Scarlett Moffatt swaps grubs for ‘Bacon’ in multi-million pound brand campaign from EE

EE, the UK’s largest mobile network operator, has launched a multi-million pound, multi-channel brand campaign to highlight that EE has 4G in more places than any other network.

The integrated campaign sees Kevin Bacon return for TV and digital, this time as an EE engineer, alongside popular star of Gogglebox and I’m a Celebrity, Scarlett Moffatt. The ad, entitled We Go Further, features Kevin travelling the length and breadth of Britain with Ed the engineer, demonstrating the extraordinary lengths that EE goes to so that customers can do more of what they love via 4G.

The opening scene sees Kevin and Ed trekking up the snowy mountains of Scotland to install a 4G mast so that the ‘Carter family’ in a nearby caravan can stream ‘cat vids’ over EE’s superfast network. Next we see Kevin and Ed testing a newly-launched 4G-boosting drone on a remote beach where Scarlett Moffatt happens to be camping. Faced with eating a large unappetising grub, Scarlett is delighted to hear she can now use the 4G network to order a takeaway thanks to EE. She tosses the grub away and whips out her phone to have her favourite treat, a chicken kebab, delivered from Just Eat.

After saving the day with Scarlett, we see the engineering team head to a busy music festival to demonstrate EE’s temporary network setup which will keep customers connected at around 50 large outdoor events this year alone. Kevin embraces the situation donning glitter on his face and proclaims to Ed: ‘You’ve given these ravers Facebook Live.’

Finally, as we see Kevin and Ed’s van driving off into the sunset to continue rolling out EE’s 4G network across the UK, Kevin sums up: ‘EE, we give you 4G in more places than any other UK network.’

The 40 second TV ad will air across all commercial channels from tomorrow – Saturday 1 April. It will feature during primetime ITV show Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, which also stars Scarlett Moffatt. An exclusive 20 second version and a selection of seven second edits will also run across digital platforms including SnapChat.

The ‘We Go Further’ campaign creative will run across print, digital, social, OOH, regional radio and retail. It is EE’s most targeted and personalised campaign to date, using localised photography and messaging in 166 stores, localised ads in 29 regional locations and 21,000 potential message combinations for direct customer communications.

Max Taylor, managing director of marketing at EE, said: “Our customers tell us loud and clear that they want 4G coverage wherever they go, so we’re building our network to give them blisteringly fast gigabit speeds in UK cities and superfast 4G in even the most remote places. Following our successful campaigns on network speed, we are evolving our core messaging to focus on helping our customers to do all the things they love over 4G, wherever they are. Whether streaming video from a camping holiday or using Facebook Live at a music festival, it is sometimes the more remote places where our customers rely on a good 4G signal the most. We are on a mission to cover 95% of the UK landmass with 4G by 2020, rolling out our network to the furthest corners of Britain to ensure our customers get the fastest speeds no matter where they go."

The campaign is timed to run alongside the launch of one of the most anticipated devices this year, the new Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. EE customers will get the most of the Galaxy S8’s superfast speeds and stunning Infinity Display in more places thanks to EE’s unrivalled 4G network, as well as WiFi Calling and 4G Calling and a range of great additional benefits.

The campaign was developed by EE's advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi London. EE's media buying agency, Maxus, has led the multi million pound investment in placement.