Barry Frey Chats with Peter DeLuca of T-Mobile USA

Barry Frey:  What media do you consume on a daily basis?

Peter DeLuca:  When you're in this space, you must consume a lot of media to keep pace.  The media I consume daily includes Facebook, Twitter, radio -- both traditional and streaming-- and TV – both live and on-demand.  And I always keep an eye out for OOH media during my commutes to and from work.  

Frey:  What are the biggest changes you foresee in the world of brand marketing over the next few years?

DeLuca:  The world of marketing is shifting to one-to-one, personalized messages at mass-market implementation.  While this is the "traditional" direct-to-consumer and/or digital approach, it must be applied to all communications moving forward.  The consumer experience will vastly improve as they'll get the messages they actually need -- and not messages that aren't relevant to them.

Brand marketing was built with mass media, and now that you can personalize mass media it requires a different way of working.  Technology and data now play a much larger role, and team skill sets need to continually evolve to truly take advantage of personalization.

Frey:  What's on the horizon for T-Mobile?

DeLuca:  Well, we can't and won't stop changing wireless for good.  We started the Un-carrier movement more than four years ago to change the wireless industry into one that actually puts customers first, and it's working.  Consumers have noticed and have made us America's fastest growing wireless provider -- and the competition has been forced to change as a result. We'll continue listening to customers, solving their pain points and bringing our Un-carrier message and experience to life for consumers.

Frey:  Are you utilizing digital out of home and, if so, how?

DeLuca:  T-Mobile is a social first company and digital is an important part of our strategy.  We take a completely integrated approach with every campaign and digital plays a huge role, as we know it's where people are consuming and engaging with content daily.  Digital out-of-home allows us to be quicker to market and support promotional messages in market.  It also gives us the ability to personalize messages depending on the time of day, which is one way we've leveraged B2B vs. B2C messages.

Frey:  Out-of-home media is now more digital, location data-infused and programmatic.  What do you see as present and future opportunities for digital out-of-home?

DeLuca:  We know people are consuming enormous amounts of digital content daily -- from news to all kinds of entertainment.  It's where consumers are, and as a brand you must reach customers where they're at in a relevant and authentic way.  While the evolution is incredible for brands when it comes to delivering the right message to the right audience, it's huge for consumers as well.  The customer experience will only get better as the content they're seeing becomes more personalized and relevant to them.

As digital out-of-home continues to expand, so do the opportunities for brands in using it as a tactic.  We're always exploring this notion, and are currently experimenting with re-messaging on mobile, traffic-based personalization and deploying buys programmatically.  We'll soon understand the value of out-of-home within our media mix where it's been lacking in the past.

Frey:  Tell us a bit about your upcoming speaking appearance at the Video Everywhere Summit.

DeLuca:  I'll be talking about how powerful video content is, especially when it comes to bringing the Un-carrier to life and reaching customers in relevant ways.  It's one of the most powerful mediums to engage with customers, tell our story and forge connections.  Our customers are mobile and connected.  Social and video is consumed everywhere they are --  which means as a brand, we need to be everywhere.  Take the 2017 T-Mobile Home Run Derby for example. You didn't just see our content on TV during the broadcast.  We were in social, on broadcast, on web, at the game in Miami and we even livestreamed the event in Times Square.

Frey:  What is your favorite recently downloaded app?

DeLuca:  Mobile Passport -- it makes getting through customs so much easier!

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