Brands are also catching onto this trend. Riding the wave of ‘90s nostalgia for the childhoods of millennials, Nokia recently revived its classic flip phone. And in April, Heineken partnered with Nokia manufacturer Human Mobile Devices (HMD) to release The Boring Phone, which can only send and receive calls and text messages and isn’t connected to the internet. 

For a mobile network like Three, this movement presents an interesting conundrum. The brand has to “shift a bit with the way the world is going,” said McClure. “It’s all about personal networks, not broadcasting to the entire world on social media.”

Changing the brand’s image

Three’s campaign also comes during a proposed merger between the company and rival Vodafone. The deal would create the U.K.’s largest mobile phone operator, but the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating it over concerns that consumers could face higher prices and reduced quality of service. 

Three chief executive Robert Finnegan argued last month that the merger with Vodafone was “vital” to create a “best-in-class network” for the country. 

On the marketing front, it is “business as usual” for Three as it continues to build on the “Life Needs a Big Network” platform, McClure said. 

Over the past three years, Three’s campaign has aimed to change its image as a youthful, London-centric brand and broaden its appeal to a wider audience. 

“People felt that it was not a proper network and was very value-driven,” McClure explained.

Earlier ads in the campaign focused on the “life” part of the tagline, depicting everyday, sometimes silly moments of connection, such as two grandmothers laughing at a filter on their phones. 

Now the emphasis is on the word “network,” which opens up creative possibilities to tell human stories and infuse the brand with more emotional resonance, McClure said. 

Since its 2021 launch, the campaign has contributed to Three’s highest levels of consideration among consumers since 2016, per the brand’s data.

“We have evolved our brand platform, ‘Life Needs a Big Network,’ to focus on the human networks that our customers value so dearly, and the sense of connection they bring to their lives,” Aislinn O’Connor, director of marketing at Three UK and Ireland, said in a statement. “Central to this is our network supporting your network in day-to-day life and the moments that really matter.”