• by Aaron Baar , March 4, 2012

In the new mobile world, it’s all about data. In a new advertising campaign, Sprint -- via its new agencies Leo Burnett and Digitas -- showcases how the limits placed on data consumption by other providers lead to tough choices about what is worth downloading.

“The way people are consuming data on their phones, consumption is going up and up,” Mark Moll, a creative director at Leo Burnett who helped develop the campaign, tells Marketing Daily.

In the first of five commercials that made their debut last week, NBA forward Kevin Durant (who was the MVP of the 2012 All-Star Game) describes a great play he made the previous night, intercut with the action. “I was double teamed -- no one to pass it to. So I pulled up and hit the shot for the win,” he says. As he’s about to launch the shot, the action freezes. “And you didn’t see it, I get that,” Durant says, explaining that data plans can make such viewing costly. “But seriously, you chose to download Doodle Jump instead of streaming my shot.” The spot then encourages people to “avoid a data dilemma.”

“If we’re going to come with that message and make it clear, we should lean into the fact that you’re going to have to make a choice,” Moll says. “[The message] is more compelling when you’ve got something that’s going to be taken away. It’s got more tension in it.”

Forthcoming spots in the campaign depict parents unable to upload pictures from their son’s graduation and a man being dressed down by his boss for not making a video teleconference call because of data limits. The idea is to make it clear that people who have limits on their data plans will have to make uncomfortable choices when they approach their monthly limits, Moll says.

The campaign is the first since Sprint moved its account to “Team Sprint,” which includes Digitas and Leo Burnett as its marketing agencies, in early February. Departing from its previous “Now Network” theme, the campaign will be looking to drive home Sprint’s message of having a truly unlimited data plan, Moll says.

“The strategy is to make unlimited matter,” Moll says. “I think we achieved it in a way that puts it into context in your life.”