Thmbnls

Background

Teenage pregnancy and safe sex awareness amongst young people is a big problem in the UK. An additional issue is that teenagers are increasingly unlikely to respond to conventional advertising.

These are people who don’t have time to listen. They want instant messaging and unlimited downloads. They want media on their terms. For them, the mobile is more than a means of communicating, it is a lifeline to their social group.

The challenge for 20:20 was to devise content that teenagers would want to share.

Idea

In what they claim to be “a media first”, the agency created ‘Thmbnls’, an interactive mobile drama that teenagers could download for free. Just like a regular soap on TV, ‘Thmbnls’ is broadcast at 7pm every Friday. Each episode, though, is just 60 seconds long, with a whole storyline, complete with cliff-hanger ending and opportunities to interact.

Over 22 weekly episodes, the lives of six teenagers unfold. Viwers can get involved via SMS and email to influence the development of the plot.

Results

With nine episodes still to be played out, results so far are:

40,000 unique mobile interactions 250,000 uniques visitors to thmbnls.mobi Thousands of social media links, hundreds of mentions in blogs and a number of interviews on Radio 1, local radio and in the national press.

Our Thoughts

Mobile media is going to become increasingly important to talk to teens. In my distant youth, my entire life was in my (small, messy and probably smelly) bedroom. My daughter’s life, by contrast, is in her mobile. Her music, her mates and now her entertainment, it’s all in her pocket. As a parent, I’m impressed with this campaign and applaud 20:20 for always being early-adopters of new technology in order to create ideas that engage. The message is in there, use a condom or you’ll regret it, and I hope it’s sinking in.