It’s a rare thing to think about the magic behind connectivity: The fact that we can call someone who lives half a world away, or connect to the internet as we fly through the air in a metal tube is something previous generations could only have imagined. We tend to take it for granted in this day and age.
Knowing this, our partners at AT&T were inspired by a thought that turned into a phrase: “What would a day without any connectivity at all look like?” From that moment of inspiration, “A Day Without” was born. The objective? Showcase what life without connectivity looks like, but do it in a way that entertains - and specifically, that entertains the TikTok audience.
Knowing our approach would be somewhere between a reality show and a creator house, we worked with talent management partners to hide certain specifics of our filming schedule with the talent, and in true reality TV fashion, our cast was asked to hand over all their devices as the entered our mansion (and of course we were sure to capture those genuine reactions.)
From there, our host posed everyday - seemingly easy - challenges that our cast of TikTokers had to solve, sans devices. Directed by, hosted by and starring some of TikTok’s best and brightest, A Day Without brought the drama, the energy and the laughs that we love from our favorite platform.
TikTok talent was central to this project. We knew we needed creators who were not only quick on their feet, but could lean into acting and solving AT&T’s connectivity challenges in a way that captured the consumer — this criteria led us to a very specific kind of creator.
As a result, Oust went to the casting table and through a series of episode concepts, collaborative calls and partnership with talent’s representatives, we cast some of TikTok’s favorite rising stars to feature in the platform-specific series. Brennen Taylor was the house’s natural ringleader, Yasmine Sahid was everyone’s immediate best friend, Nameless James: our beloved “himbo,” Tom McGovern: the swoony musical guest, and Emily Uribe our reality-style host.
To bring it all together, we tapped digital creator & director Aaron Chewning to bring our “show” to life. With a collective total of 6.5M followers on TikTok (and with even greater reach when factoring in followers from other platforms, like Instagram and YouTube,) we had our cast of characters set. From there, we concepted, scripted and directed a series of games, quizzes and tasks the influencers had to perform without the help of their trusty devices, made sure to pull the creators aside for in-the-moment confessionals, and rolled tape.
With more than 1.4M views, this TikTok-centric campaign primed AT&T followers and other viewers for a larger discussion that AT&T would prioritize in the coming months around connectivity for all and the daily realities for those who live without ready and available access to phone or internet connection.
Perhaps most impressively, the content earned a sentiment score of 92.7% among viewers and commenters. The A-level grade can be attributed - in no small part - to the beloved TikTok creators we partnered with for this series: the content edited for them and posted to their pages generated an additional half a million views and engagements.
