Is this a pointless ad? - Telstra | Clapboard Ad Archive
Telstra’s 2024 campaign Is this a pointless ad? sees the Australian telco collaborating with +61/ Bear Meets Eagle on Fire for a film-based push that unapologetically rewards customer loyalty through sharp creative restraint and incisive market positioning within the Electronics and Technology category. Anchoring its proposition on exclusivity, the campaign lands a meta, tongue-in-cheek concept: the work itself is rendered pointless for non-customers, with Telstra declaring that only those holding active services as of April 1 can unlock its best deals through the My Telstra app until May 6. This brand message does not dilute its ambition with broad acquisition or mass persuasion; rather, it draws a deliberate line between insiders and outsiders, turning the mere act of watching the ad into a symbolic act of inclusion or exclusion. The central creative device, which Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, makes clever use of negative space—the ad’s irrelevance for non-customers literally embodies the problem of being outside the circle of benefit, skipping product demos, celebrity-driven storytelling, or elaborate narratives in favour of carrying the entire communication with a single, self-referential gesture. This is a sharp corrective to the loyalty dynamics underpinning a telecoms landscape where competitors such as Optus, Vodafone Australia, Amaysim, TPG Telecom, and Dodo have traditionally foregrounded value, tech innovation, or all-in affordability in their bid for audience growth, but rarely put existing customer reward front and centre as the hero of their campaigns. Telstra’s strategy instead uses scarcity and targeted access to drive retention, create urgency, and deepen the digital relationship via the app, closing the loop between message and behaviour. The restraint in execution, an absence of spectacle, and an unwavering focus on current users all signal a disciplined approach for a brand in a mature, hyper-competitive sector, especially as much of the industry continues to chase the next new subscriber through ever noisier price and speed propositions. Clapboard rates this 66/100. In an era saturated with acquisition-focused messaging, Telstra’s campaign stands out because it reminds the industry of the untapped power in making loyalty feel like an exclusive club—especially when exclusion itself is the creative idea.
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