Mobile network Three worked with festival organiser Broadwick Live to take its ‘Feel At Home’ message to the Austrian Alps earlier this month.

Three’s strategy at this year’s Snowbombing targeted the thousands of young, cool hipsters via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook that attended the week-long festival.

Run by Broadwick Live, this five-day collision of bands, DJs and winter sports in Austria has become one of the most successful festivals on the planet – and one of the most lucrative weeks of the year for the chocolate-box town of Mayrhofen, where it’s held. Building a close relationship with brands has been key to Broadwick Live’s success at this and the other events it holds across the year.

“The key is to work with brands to maximise engagement with our audiences by creating something that’s real, relevant and adds to the whole experience,” says Broadwick Live director Alexander Bennett.

In April this year, Mayrhofen welcomed some 8,000 festivalgoers keen to sample the delights of the slopes by day and performances from top DJs and bands by night, from Fatboy Slim to Rudimental. Due to the fact that 85% of the audience are from the UK, the festival presents the perfect audience for Three’s latest initiative, letting Three customers use their phone abroad at no extra cost in 18 destinations across the globe – including, of course, Austria.

Three also wanted to use punters as brand ambassadors, and get them to share their holiday ‘spam’ with friends back home and around the world.

“Three’s Feel At Home campaign is about making Brits ‘feel at home’ when they are abroad by being able to use their mobile as if they were at home at no extra cost,” explains lead communications manager at Three, Pippa Whybourne.

“Snowbombing is a great alignment for our brand as it’s a cool, exciting event. So we decided to take a variety of quintessential British things to the mountains for people to engage with. A series of backdrops for creating the ‘Ultimate Selfie’ were created – such as an English pub, half a Tube carriage and an authentic red London phone box – all there for Snowbombers to generate some fun holiday spam and encourage them to share their images socially by using their phones abroad at no extra cost.”

Delivering a series of perfect backdrops across the festival for Snowbombers to create the perfect selfie or group shot, Three provided inspiration for people to have fun, get snapping and spam their friends timelines. Meanwhile, a host of strategically placed witty signage, featuring relevant hashtags, encouraged sharing of the photos through social media.

The result was an explosion of Three-themed Snowbombing photos across social channels, raising awareness of the campaign.

Originally posted Engage 29 April 2015