• by Aaron Baar , July 19, 2012

U.S. Cellular is out to get people to end their unhappy, unfulfilling relationships with their wireless service providers, via a new marketing campaign that shows they can have something better. 

“We don’t believe frustration is necessary in the category,” Dave Kimbell, the carrier’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, tells Marketing Daily. “And people tolerate it, because they don’t think there’s a better option.”

The new campaign, “Hello Better,” began this week with television advertisements depicting “Bruce,” a salesman from a wireless carrier asking his former customers to come back to him. In one spot, he offers a customer a free smartphone if they sign a lengthy contract. “What if I want to get out of it?” the customer asks. Bruce’s answer: once a three-toed sloth travels around the world. In another commercial, a woman asks for a rewards program, to which Bruce responds, “There’s no such thing.”

The effort will also include print and digital advertising, as well as grassroots efforts intended to raise U.S. Cellular’s profile in the communities it serves, such as enlisting a relationship expert to advise consumers about how to identify when they’re in a dysfunctional relationship.

“Phones are supposed to make life easier and simpler, and we want to be a better option for people,” Kimbell says. 

Starting this month, the carrier will launch a social marketing campaign, called “Call someone who cares,” Kimbell says. For the effort, the company will scour social media for consumers expressing dissatisfaction with their wireless carrier. Then, a U.S. cellular representative will craft a response that addresses the dissatisfied consumer’s specific problem.

“When someone tweets their frustration, we’ll be singing a song to that specific individual talking about the quality of our network,” he says.