The Strategy
When it comes to our internet lives, there is nothing we fear more than being hit with the loading wheel. It ruins nights when we’re trying to watch both seasons of Killing Eve in one sitting. It kills the vibe when we’re on a “you need to see this!” YouTube tear with friends. It silences the crowd when the beat’s about to drop and we’re suddenly met by the deafeningly awkward sound of BUFFERING… BUFFERING… BUFFERING… So we decided to leverage people’s fear and assumption that a buffering symbol always means bad news and bring life to the loading wheel.
The Creative Idea
Partnering with artist Pablo Rochat, we turned the most annoying part of the internet into entertainment. We created our own graphic that posed as a loading wheel and tricked people into thinking they were waiting for their content to load – when in reality, right when they thought they were stuck in a loading-wheel-holding-pattern and least expected it, we created beautifully clever animations out of their loading wheel to prove that when you have AT&T Fiber, everything is Fiber Fast.
The Execution
Open on a loading wheel (like a you-think-your-content-is-actually-loading loading wheel). It loads… and loads… and loads… and loads… every millisecond a tiny bit of the incomplete circle keeps filling in. And then suddenly, right when your blood starts to boil, the loading wheel does the unexpected and ANIMATES: filling in an angry emoji face with #$?!@ written across its mouth; a worm slowly inching across your screen; a snail gliding along; a watch ticking away; etc. Each execution illustrates how AT&T solves the most common and frustrating internet problem with its reliability and speed.
The Results
It turns out people actually like loading wheels when they're not actually loading wheels. Wheel Of Whoa has proven to be highly engaging and motivating for consumers, driving a 120% higher click-through-rate than baseline and delivering a 4x higher Fiber sales conversion than baseline in retargeting (Wheel of Woah has a sales conversion of 20% compared to 5%.)
Awards
Shorty Award (Best use of Short Form Video)
Shorty Award (Best use of Short Form Video)
Webby Honoree x2 (Advertising: Media & PR, Social Media Campaign)
OMMA (Best Use of Video on Social Platforms)
