The Power of Easy

What better way to celebrate the power of connectivity than to create a 90-second film that immerses the viewer in seven different creative worlds – and to pull it all off in one seamlessly connected take?

Nailing that one take for Ericsson’s “Power of easy” was anything “but” easy. In the end, it was the 45th attempt that proved successful. And those 90 seconds would become the centerpiece of the Swedish tech giant’s biggest and most ambitious brand campaign to date – telling the story of how Ericsson is an enabler of some of the world’s most celebrated innovations: those we see today and those that are yet to come.

Catching people’s attention was just the start of it.

For Ericsson, it wouldn’t be enough to just get people excited about connectivity. The brand needed people to learn about how its technology is at the cutting edge of innovation. That by driving possibilities in technology – including, of course, 5G – its customers and end-users spanning practically all industries... would be better poised to achieve their goals.

We built an online platform that housed not only the 90-second main film but also 7 sub-pages for each of the scenes the film traveled through. Each page would include deep-dive information about that particular category – such as “Connected homes”, “Event experiences” or “Immersive gaming.”

50+ countries. Five continents. Nine languages. Over 1000 uniquely constructed audience groups, from policymakers to talent to service providers. This was a big bang.

Our in-house media team coordinated and executed an extensive media strategy; including global media partnerships, out-of-home display media, paid and organic social, PR, influencers, and more – making Ericsson and its “quest for easy” more visible, appealing, and accessible than ever.

If you’re the tech giant paving the way for the next wave of innovation, you need ambassadors to match. We brought on several.

We open the film on the disability-rights advocate and deaf-blind Harvard Law graduate Haben Girma; she’s traveling in an autonomous vehicle. (Girma more than starred in our film; her input also inspired us to add a number of accessibility features to the campaign website.)

We also feature Mari Takahashi in the film. The renowned gaming personality steps into an immersive mixed-reality world with her little green sidekick. Later in the film, viewers would see Nadia Nadim – striker and 2021 French national champion with Paris Saint-Germain – displaying her fancy footwork.

In the first few weeks alone, we served more than 100 million impressions and 15 million video views – with cost-effectiveness 100% higher than the industry standard.

• Impressions: 130M
• Film views: 65M
• Lower bounce rate: 63%
• New sessions: 75%

This translated into a 20 percent increase in brand awareness. We were also able to continue to build the perception of Ericsson as a leader in 5G, improving this metric by 10 percent. This positive development culminated in Ericsson being rated as the leader in 5G on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant during February 2021 based on “completeness of vision” and “ability to execute”. That’s what happens when you unleash the power of easy.

In addition to the 44 failed attempts, there were: 3683 hours of preparations; 2.5 days of rehearsals; 43 test animatic versions; 124 people on set; 38 ruined posters; 115 crowd-surf stage dives; 9 cameraman t-shirt changes; 2 crushed footballs; and 1 perfect take.