My art director and I created a teaser campaign for Virgin, to announce they’d have the new iPhone. But we weren’t allowed to say iPhone. Or show it. Or reference Apple in any way. So we tapped into tech geek culture, and in Virgin’s unique tongue-in-cheek style, we created our own #phonerumours, and invited the public to do the same.

All rumours such as ‘It’ll have a lickable touchscreen with 12 flavour settings’ were paid off with the #phonefact that ‘We’ll have it on the UK’s most flexible tariffs’. We chose the best public responses and turned them into animations and press ads.

The pre-sale sold out within 24 hours, and we picked up a shiny DMA for the campaign.