Tag: telecommunications

Foxtel: The Alert Shirt

In September 2012, London fashion house CuteCircuit launched a wearable, sharable, programmable tshirt. Then in 2013, Durex Australia unveiled their wearable electronic underwear that allowed touch to be transferred over the internet. Now joining this growing trend of wearable electronic clothing is the Alert Shirt from Australian telecommunications company Foxtel.

Loyal Foxtel customers can use this special shirt to experience in real time some of the physical sensations their favorite players have on the field, including:

  • Pressure: A thumping heartbeat
  • Impact: The shock of a big hit
  • Adrenalin: An intense rush of blood
  • Exhaustion: Lungs burning with effort
  • Despair: A sudden sinking feeling

The data is transmitted via Bluetooth from smartphone app, and the shirt is powered by a lithium polymer cell battery.

From second-screen to second-skin

The mechanism is a clean translation layer. Live game moments are captured as data, the app receives them, and the shirt turns those signals into physical feedback. The experience is not about watching harder. It is about feeling the sport in parallel with the broadcast.

In subscription sports media, the strategic job is retention. The best fan experiences make the service feel like access to something you cannot get anywhere else.

Why it lands

This idea works because it turns fandom into a bodily cue, not just a viewing habit. It also frames “technology” as something you wear once, then forget. When it is working, the interface disappears and the sensation becomes the message.

Extractable takeaway: If you want to deepen engagement, do not add more features to the screen. Translate key moments into a new sensory channel that runs alongside the core experience, and make activation as close to effortless as possible.

What Foxtel is really testing

Beyond the spectacle, this is a trial of emotional stickiness. By emotional stickiness, the point is simple: give fans a stronger felt reason to come back for the live broadcast. The real question is whether that added intensity is strong enough to make Foxtel feel like the only place to experience the match properly. If the shirt can make a live match feel more intense at home, it creates a reason to watch live, to watch longer, and to choose the broadcast that supports the experience.

What sports broadcasters can steal from this

  • Design the sensation vocabulary. Map data to feelings in a way users can understand instantly.
  • Make the phone a bridge, not the destination. Use the app to pair and translate, then let the wearable carry the moment.
  • Keep the promise specific. Heartbeat, hit, exhaustion. Concrete signals beat vague “immersive” claims.
  • Build for live viewing. The value rises when timing is tight and the feedback feels synchronous.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Foxtel Alert Shirt?

It is a connected shirt that receives live match signals via a Bluetooth smartphone app and converts them into physical sensations so fans can feel key moments in real time.

What problem does it solve for a broadcaster?

It makes the broadcast feel exclusive and more emotionally intense, which can support loyalty and repeat live viewing.

Why use physical sensations instead of more on-screen stats?

Because sensations do not compete with the main viewing experience. They add a parallel layer without asking the fan to look away.

What makes this kind of wearable feel credible?

Clear mappings between events and sensations, low setup friction, and tight timing so feedback feels connected to the moment.

How can another brand apply the pattern?

Choose a live experience with high emotion, capture a small set of meaningful signals, then translate them into a simple, repeatable sensory vocabulary.

Claro: Ringtowns

Turning coverage into something people can carry

Claro is one of the leading telecommunications companies in Guatemala and it faces a constant struggle to combat negative perceptions of their network coverage. So Ogilvy Guatemala created a campaign to counter these perceptions and communicate the wide coverage of Claro by involving consumers through their cellphones.

Imitating the sound of the traditional ringtones they communicated the names of towns and remote communities in the country. The campaign “Ringtowns” was based on local realities in Guatemala to create a strong sense of identity and pride, while communicating the wide coverage of Claro in an innovative manner. In the campaign, each “Ringtown” is a downloadable ringtone that encodes a town or community name into the audio, so the place name itself becomes the message.

The mechanic: make a town name sound like a ringtone

The product here is not a poster or a banner. It is a piece of audio people choose to install. Each ringtone is designed to sound like a familiar phone ring while “saying” a place name, so the coverage claim becomes something you hear repeatedly in daily life.

A “Ringtown” is a downloadable ringtone that encodes a specific town or community name into the audio, so the location itself becomes the message.

In telecom categories where coverage is questioned, making the proof travel through personal devices can outperform traditional persuasion because it shows up in real social moments.

In emerging-market telecom markets, coverage trust is shaped as much by social stories as by technical maps.

Why it lands: social proof disguised as personalization

The real question is whether you can make a skeptical coverage claim feel like a personal identity choice, not corporate reassurance. This works because it turns a skeptical claim, “We cover remote places,” into a personalized choice. If I download a ringtone that represents my town, then every time my phone rings in public, it signals both identity and reach. That shift turns the coverage narrative from a corporate statement into a consumer-owned artifact that other people hear.

Extractable takeaway: When an attribute is distrusted, package the proof as a personalized utility people choose, keep, and replay in public.

What Claro is really buying with this format

This is an awareness campaign that behaves like distribution. Downloads create repeat exposures. Call events create additional impressions. Sharing extends reach without extra media spend. An opt-in utility is a stronger lever than another coverage-map ad because repetition is user-chosen and public.

Most importantly, it reframes “coverage” from a technical map into a cultural map. Names and pride replace bars and statistics.

Design moves that make proof portable

  • Make the message a utility. If people can use it daily, frequency is built in.
  • Use identity as the opt-in. People adopt things that say something about where they are from.
  • Design for public replay. Ringtones happen around other people, which makes the message audible and social.
  • Keep distribution simple. Website download and text message fulfillment reduce barriers.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Claro’s Ringtowns campaign?

It is a mobile campaign that turns town and community names into ringtone-style audio. People download the ringtones, and every incoming call becomes a small, repeated reminder of Claro’s coverage.

How does it communicate network coverage without showing a map?

It uses place names as the proof. By turning remote locations into ringtones, the campaign suggests breadth of coverage through cultural recognition rather than technical claims.

Why is the ringtone format powerful for marketing?

A ringtone is repeated, public, and chosen by the user. That combination creates high frequency exposure with built-in social visibility.

What is the key participation mechanic?

Users download one of the “Ringtowns” from the Claro website or request it by text message. Installation is the commitment step that creates ongoing exposure.

What is the biggest risk if you copy this idea?

If the audio is annoying or the payoff feels unclear, people will not keep it installed. The artifact has to be genuinely usable, not just clever once.