How TELUS Turned High-Stakes Moments into Record Internet Sales

In this episode of Canadians Create, we go inside TELUS’ award-winning “High Stakes” platform with the client–agency team that built it. Host Qasim Virjee is joined by Leia Rogers (executive creative director & partner, Rethink), Elyse Sanders (head of strategy, Rethink Vancouver), and Rob Daintree (director of marketing communications, TELUS).

Together, they unpack how a shifting competitive landscape in Western Canada pushed TELUS to move beyond familiar “fastest internet” claims and instead dramatize what it actually feels like when your internet lets you down in high-stakes moments — from registering your kids for summer camp to landing a critical job interview.

We explore how the team balanced TELUS’ beloved critter-led brand with sharper, comparative live-action storytelling, then rolled the idea out across a full-funnel campaign: broadcast, CTV, social, and highly contextual out-of-home placements tied to real “high stakes” cultural moments.

The results? The “High Stakes” platform, which won Gold in Local Market Success at the Effies, helped deliver TELUS’ best high-speed internet quarter on record, with significant lifts in perceptions of fiber over cable, an 8% increase in order volume, and a 47% reduction in cost of acquisition — a powerful proof that great creative is the new performance.

#advertising #adcampaign #marketing #rethink #telus #casestudy

CHAPTERS
00:00 – Intro to Canadians Create & today’s case
00:37 – Meet the guests: TELUS & Rethink team
02:01 – Who is Rethink? 25 years of independent creativity
03:22 – Who is TELUS? From telecom to tech, health & ag
05:01 – How TELUS and Rethink started working together
06:27 – The business challenge: a new competitive landscape in Western Canada
08:03 – Watching the ‘High Stakes’ campaign spots
09:37 – Fiber vs cable explained in simple terms
11:38 – Strategy shift: from speed claims to human “high stakes” moments
14:18 – Protecting the TELUS brand & the legacy of the “critters”
18:03 – Building the ‘High Stakes’ platform and tight creative brief
20:25 – High-stakes examples: summer camp, job interviews & Taylor Swift tickets
28:25 – Full-funnel rollout: TV, CTV, social & contextual out-of-home
32:01 – A platform the whole organization can rally around
35:27 – Measuring impact: brand lift, consideration & sales
37:03 – Record results: best Q2, +8% orders, –47% cost of acquisition
40:35 – Final reflections & what ‘High Stakes’ unlocks for TELUS

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Canadians Create is a weekly video podcast that brings a different case to our roundtable for open discussion.

With each episode, we dig deeper to reveal the humour, intelligence and empathy which the country’s creatives bring to their commercial work.

The show is produced by StartWell (https://startwell.co), in partnership with the Institute of Canadian Agencies (https://theica.ca) and Little Black Book (https://lbbonline.com).

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Видео How TELUS Turned High-Stakes Moments into Record Internet Sales канала Canadians Create