• by Aaron Baar , January 20, 2014

Friends, family -- it doesn’t matter to Sprint with its new “Framily” plan that allows up to 10 people to form a group and share unlimited talk, text and 1 GB of data.

In a new marketing campaign from its “Team Sprint” agency led by DigitasLBi, the wireless company illustrates how people can invite whomever they choose into their group. A new television ad shows a family together, as a voiceover asks who they would put into their Framily plan. The father responds with “the girls, my lady [his wife and daughters] and my fantasy league. Except Brad.”

When the voiceover points out that more people equals lower overall costs, Brad gets back in the Framily. With one space remaining, a daughter opts to add her boyfriend to the group. The father, a bit objectionable, softens when he understands that everyone is responsible for their own bills.

“We wanted to try to keep the onscreen action relatively low and make sure we’re delivering as simple a message as practical,” Sprint Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hallock tells Marketing Daily about communicating a complex message as cleanly as possible.

The Framily plans, which were announced earlier this month, are a nod to changing demographics in the United States -- which have led to more one- and two-member households but an increase in social communications, Hallock says.

“As the face of American households change, the needs change and we felt we needed to leverage that people are social both online and offline,” he says. “There are a lot of one- and two-person households that have plenty of friends, but you can’t get [the group benefits].”

The initial commercial, which began airing this weekend, will be complemented with two other spots coming later, as well as print, digital and outdoor ads with headlines such as “Savings. It’s a Framily value,” and “You don’t have to be family to be Framily.” The Framily plans will also be supported heavily in social media, Hallock says.

“This [plan] by nature is perfectly set up to be viral and have customers have an interest in having people added to their plan,” Hallock says. “There will be lots of social media involved in this because it’s a natural place for people to want to share the news about it and add people to their plan.

Sprint is gearing up for a comprehensive agency review at the behest of Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of Sprint parent Softbank.