The First Music Video Created By Gen Z Comments - Telekom | Clapboard Ad Archive

Telekom’s 2024 campaign The First Music Video Created By Gen Z Comments, conceived by MUW Saatchi & Saatchi for the Slovak market, pushes the boundaries of user agency for a mobile program aimed squarely at younger consumers by harnessing the direct, creative input of 3,015 teenagers and young adults to shape an original music video for the track gleb – SWIPE. Far from a conventional telco message fixated on network stats or generic youth archetypes, Telekom roots its narrative in the crowdsourced desires and personalities of real Gen Z participants whose requests, ideas, and aspirational signals became the DNA of both the content and execution, from visual motifs to featured story elements. This approach, which Clapboard’s 12-format taxonomy classifies as FORMAT#10—Associated User Imagery, sees Telekom cede creative authority to its audience in a way that is rare for the electronics and technology category, transforming Gen Z’s digital commentary from fleeting social content into the backbone of professional branded storytelling, with those contributors explicitly credited as ideamakers and collaborators. The narrative invites the target market into a participatory dialogue, foregrounding the brand’s promise that their mobile offer literally gives today’s youth everything in their hands—empowering them not only as consumers but as cultural creators—which is underscored further by deploying music video, rap genre, and multi-platform social engagement as core campaign levers. Telekom’s decision to build a campaign in partnership with its audience rather than talking at them reflects a deep strategic understanding that Gen Z values co-creativity, transparency, and radically authentic, user-driven communication, positioning the mobile plan as a social technology enabling self-expression rather than merely connectivity. In a national telco landscape where competitors like Orange emphasize network reliability, O2 focuses on flexibility, and 4ka leans on affordability, Telekom’s campaign draws a new battle line at the intersection of youth relevance, digital culture, and participatory creativity. While engineered primarily for cultural and emotional connection rather than for mass virality, the campaign signals a shift in the market by reframing what telecoms communication can be and how brand meaning can emerge from shared creation rather than imposed messaging. Clapboard rates this 73/100. For an industry often slow to relinquish narrative control, Telekom’s 2024 initiative is a compelling case study in letting the audience co-author not just the story but the category’s new visual and rhetorical language.