Sprint’s new campaign, starring Frobinson Family
Meet the Frobinsons – an all-American family starring in a new campaign from Sprint (NYSE: S) – who are as quirky and unique as your family.
The Frobinsons campaign, created by Figliulo&Partners in its first official campaign for Sprint, in partnership with DigitasLBi and MediaVest, highlights the Sprint Framily™ Plan, the new pricing program that lets consumers decide who they consider family. It is a plan designed specifically with the new American family in mind.
The American family has changed. Our families today are more than our relatives, but also our friends, our neighbors – basically all the people we love (…) So we created a product to give the new American family the flexibility and value they need from a wireless plan, brought to life through the Frobinsons. Our campaign acknowledges that we all have families that are unique with interesting personalities. It’s a fun, lighthearted look at one group going through life as one big, happy Framily.
Jeff Hallock,
Chief Marketing Officer Sprint.
The Frobinsons is an episodic story that will unfold over the coming months, designed to deal with the ever-changing mobile industry. The creative allows for surprising cameos from stars of sports, music, screen and stage, who will soon appear.
The Frobinsons are a collection of diverse individuals blended together into a Framily group. Dad is a talking hamster (voiced by Andrew Dice Clay), while Mom is the voice of reason and the sane person in the group. There are two children at home including son, Zack, whose interests range from video games to scrapbooking to ventriloquism, and 8-year-old daughter Heidi – who is so sweet she has animated birds flying around her head at all times and she only speaks in French.
Other members of the Frobinsons include Chuck (played by new Saturday Night Live cast member Kyle Mooney), who is the older sibling “away at college,” although he’s home most afternoons; Chuck’s roommate, Gordon (pronounced Gor-Don), who is all Goth but is still part of the Framily; and Grandpa – a man of the world who is full of experience and knowledge, and someone who isn’t fond of his son-in-law. Aunt Tia is a respected avant-garde artist who brings her Latin roots to life through her expressive work.
The fully integrated campaign is extensive, launching with two broadcast spots “Framily Portrait” and “Meet the Frobinsons” that will air starting tonight across national network and cable TV, as well as in-store along with a number of digital and social extensions. Print and out-of-home will launch in the coming weeks.
Throughout the campaign, Sprint will feature a new theme: “Happy Connectingsm.,” an optimistic view expressing Sprint’s belief that the connections we make are as emotional and meaningful as they are practical and necessary. Sprint is also introducing a new color palette to complement its long-standing black and yellow.
The Frobinsons are a typical American family. They are a strange mix of individuals that care very deeply about each other and we wanted to create a group of characters that are familiar and very unique at the same time (…) We know that people are happiest when they are connected to the people and things they care about most. That’s why everything we do ends on a beginning: Happy Connecting
Mark Figliulo,
CEO & Founder Figliulo&Partners.
The Sprint Framily Plan is available to new and existing customers. The more people added to the group, up to 10 phone lines, the greater the savings for everyone on the plan. For one line of service, new Sprint customers pay $55 per month per line for unlimited talk, text and 1GB of data. For each additional new Sprint customer that joins the Framily group, the cost per person goes down $5 a month up to a maximum monthly discount of $30 per line. Build a group of at least seven people and everyone gets unlimited talk, text and 1GB of data for $25 per month per line (pricing excludes taxes and surcharges). The Framily Plan allows members to share the savings, without the hassle of sharing a bill. Each account can be billed separately.
In addition to the Frobinsons campaign, Sprint launched a print and out-of-home advertising campaign in Kansas City, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Houston messaging “America’s Newest Network.” The new Sprint network has been built from the ground-up providing faster speeds, better call quality and fewer dropped calls to keep consumers connected to what’s important to them. This three-city initiative also includes the new color palette featured throughout the Frobinsons campaign.
Credits:
Figliulo&Partners
- Chief Creative Officer: Mark Figliulo
- Creative Directors: Jonathan Mackler, Joe Ventura
- Art Director: Jonathan Mackler, Craig Duffney
- Copywriter: Joe Ventura
- Account Executive(s): Judith Carr-Rodriguez, Dena Graham
- Planning: Caroline Krediet
- Head of Production: Robert Valdes
- Producer(s): Katherine Cheng
- Art Producer: Carly Chappell
- Print Production: Sarah Whinnem
- Business Affairs: Samantha Norvin
DigitasLBi
- Creative Directors: Lewis McVey
- Art Director: Keith Henneman, Christine Monahan
- Copywriter: David Shih, Nate Winter
- Project Manager(s): Courtney Klein, Matt Hill
- Account Executive(s): Davin Power, Alex Raymond, Caitlin Kelly, Cristin Jordan
- Planning: Mark Kirby
- Business Affairs: Dan Simonetti, Wilmien Blake
- Technology: Tony Bailey, Paul Nagorney, Nathan Dill, Angie Khumdee
MediaVest
- Media team: Terry Whitney, Tracy Reimers, Debbie Hutchings, Bridget Scanlan, Kandace Barker
- Media Spend: TBC
Photographer/Designer: Emily Shur with Giant Artists
Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
- Director: Stacy Wall
- Director of Photography: John Lynch
- Executive Producer: Charlie Cocuzza
- Line Producer: Betsy Oliver
Editing House: Whitehouse Post
- Editors: Lisa Gunning, Alaster Jordan
- Assistant Editor: Josh James
- Executive Producer: Lauren Hertzberg
- Producer: Nick Crane
Publishing:
- Music: Home Sweet Home/Motley Crew
- Composer: Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx
- Audio Mix: Sound Lounge NY
- Home Sweet Home performed by Tatyana Richaud in “Framily Portraits”
- Home Sweet Home arrangement for “Meet The Frobinsons Framily”: Lee Wall
- Mixer: Tom Jucarone
Talents:
- Mom: Judy Greer
- Dad’s vo: Andrew Dice Clay
- Chuck: Kyle Mooney