Telus wants to help consumers smarten up. A new mass campaign launching Aug. 4, introducing Telus’ latest line of devices, will also tout how it can help people upgrade their smartphone experience, a first for the telco. It aims to renew Telus’s core focus of providing simplicity and transparency by helping customers understand the increased benefits of using a smartphone.
To spread the word, Telus chose one of the smartest members of the animal kingdom: the dolphin. 
“Our message is around a greater, smarter mobile experience and there’s no smarter animal than the dolphin,” says Anne-Marie LaBerge, VP, brand and marketing communications, Telus.
A TV spot depicts the dolphin interacting with complicated equations written on a transparent wall.
The words of the background song appropriately point out that “all of the answers are right in front of you,” and upon closer inspection it becomes clear that the equations are made up of telco-related acronyms. 
“We need to simplify the language and this is about us saying, ‘We’re going to re-own our brand,’” says LaBerge.
A gesture-controlled digital screen in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, plus cinema, mall and airport ads, online banners, radio, print, bus kings and a subway domination are also included in the effort.
QR codes are featured on the print and OOH portion of the dolphin campaign, which drive to a website creatively helmed by a related concurrent campaign. It features a human character (Telus’s second) by the name of Pat Prefontaine.  A cross between Tony Robbins and the Dos Equis and Old Spice guys, he’s a man who was raised by dolphins following a harrowing airplane crash as a young boy.
Prefontaine appears in two 15-second TV spots. In one, he leaps onto a dock by way of a dolphin ride, strips off a wetsuit to reveal perfectly groomed business attire and shares with Canadians his “five steps to a smarter smartphone life.”
“Those five things, they all sound fun, but they all directly link with Telus’s strategy to enhance the customer experience,” explains LaBerge.
Prefontaine is also being promoted by way of online ads and DM, driving back to the microsite.
A Facebook page complements both components, which were developed by Taxi’s Toronto and Montreal offices, with media handled by Media Experts in Toronto.

advertiser: Telus
agency: Taxi
CD: Alexandre Gadoua
ADs: Natalie Armata, Remi Paquet
copywriters: Marta Zakrzewska, Simon Guimaraes
account team: Nathalie Leduc, Tyler Brown, Sebastien Bergeron, Emilie Meunier