Just how hard does your mobile provider work? Does it go harder than a bin chicken on a Friday night? Harder than a Tradie’s accountant at EOFY? Or even harder than Nedd Brockmann’s podiatrist? Boost Mobile’s new ‘Works its arse off’ brand platform, developed by WiredCo., is here to find out.
This bold new brand campaign comes as Boost Mobile celebrates 25 years in the Australian telco market, and makes a clear statement at a time when Aussies are working harder than ever before; Boost Mobile is doing the same to deliver the best mobile deals on the hardest working network in Australia.
While already known for its challenger attitude and alignment with the youth segment and action sports culture, this new campaign embraces quintessentially Australian slang to deliver an important message in a fun, humorous and memorable way in a campaign that is being rolled out across OOH, sponsorship, BVOD, and film.
“Aussies know what hard work looks like. They’re working their arse off every day, and so are we. Boost Mobile works hard for our customers, bringing epic value and full coverage on the Telstra Prepaid Mobile network. To grow our consideration, we needed to find the most creative and salient way of telling the Boost Mobile story to more Australians,” said Fiona Ruxton, Boost Mobile’s head of marketing.
In November 2024, Boost appointed WiredCo. as their brandformance agency, taking on paid media, strategy and creative duties to help achieve the brand’s growth ambitions. And with big ambitions and targets, WiredCo.’s integrated media and creative approach enabled a strong working partnership with Boost’s team through the project.
“We started from the basic truth that Australians are hustling, grinding, battling and working harder than at any other time in recent history. So, they want every dollar they earn to work even harder than they do. And they also want a mobile provider that works just as hard,” said WiredCo’s partner and managing director, David Kennedy-Cosgrove.
This truth led the team to land on the irreverent ‘Works its arse off’ platform idea, reflecting the brand’s challenger tone that has set them apart for 25 years, while reinforcing the lengths Boost Mobile goes to provide some of the hardest working deals in the market.
“It’s a statement of intent for the brand – guiding the attitude they take to everything moving forward, from comms to products,” said WiredCo’s creative director, Joe Stuart.
The films, produced by Rabbit and directed by Aimée-Lee Xu Hsien, take the lead in showing uniquely hard-working and culturally recognisable Australian situations or things as a comparative to how Boost works even harder for you.
“When you think about what a mobile network provider like Boost does every day, it connects billions of data points, millions of calls, thousands of messages, and it ensures we get all our videos streamed and cat memes shared. In an abstract and invisible way, it works bloody hard,” said Stuart.
“Then we thought about all the unsung uniquely Australia things that work bloody hard. We built a list of over two hundred. But we worked together with Boost to whittle it down to the really unexpected, iconic, and funny things.
“A Bin Chicken works hard on a Friday night. Nedd Brockmann’s podiatrist works hard after he’s run across Australia. And a ‘97 Ute with 700,000KMs on the clock works bloody hard. When you pit them against Boost, none of them works as hard as it does, but you end up with this lovely comparison that celebrates both. Aimée-Lee’s comedic style was perfect for delivering this in a fresh way,” said Stuart.
A return to humour and irreverence was the right approach for the next chapter of the Boost brand, as they recognised the need to exercise humor to help build long-term saliency around the ‘Works its arse off’ story.
“Leaning into Aussie slang and humour to stand out and connect with customers fits nicely with our brand DNA. We also wanted to get Nedd Brockmann involved because he’s famous for going hard at challenges like being the fastest to run from Perth to Sydney. It was the perfect opportunity to not only land the campaign line but also help us reach new audiences,” said Ruxton.
The campaign extends into a large-format national OOH campaign, with the ‘Works its arse off’ statement taking centre stage. Interplaying with the statement, the OOH features a variety of hard-working everyday moments or objects to show all the things you can do on a network that works its arse off, even if you’re a bin chicken.
With the brand’s deep Supercars partnership, the media strategy for the campaign kicked off with the 60-second running across the Supercars Championship and national BVOD and YouTube. Following that, the brand took over the entire Gold Coast for the Boost GC 500, all accompanied by national OOH, social and 30 and 15-second TV and BVOD across Q4.
