Mint Mobile Tops List of Brands Seeing a Boost in Ad Awareness

People are noticing Mint Mobile’s paid media more than they did earlier this year.

When asked throughout July, August, and September if they recalled seeing or hearing one of the budget-friendly wireless provider’s ads in the past two weeks, 21.4% of U.S. adults said they did, according to data analytics firm YouGov. That’s up from 16.7% who said the same when asked throughout April, May, and June.

Mint Mobile’s increase in ad awareness from Q2 to Q3 — 4.7 percentage points — is larger than any other brand tracked in YouGov’s database.

Other brands that also experienced noticeable gains with this metric include the NFL Network (4.1 percentage points), Amazon (3.1 points), Icy Hot (2.8 points), and YouTube Music/YouTube Premium (2.7 points).

One factor behind Mint Mobile’s ability to get more consumers to both notice and remember its advertising from one quarter to the next is sheer volume.

“We did scale up our media program in Q3,” said Aron North, chief marketing officer of Mint Mobile.

North explained the return of live sports, coupled with news related to the election, made the season ideal to run more ads. “Viewership in linear and connected television just increases at this time, so we want to be there,” he added.

Although North declined to discuss how much money the brand invested in paid media, figures from iSpot.tv, an ad measurement and analytics firm, show Mint Mobile ran 11,188 commercials on national linear TV in Q3, up from 2,419 airings in Q2 — an increase of 363%.

Airing more commercials aside, another element to generating more ad awareness is making sure the right content reaches the right audience.

“What we see with our clients is that timing, relevance of the creative, and where the message is delivered are huge factors in determining whether an ad sticks with consumers,” said Ryan Gross, head of data products at YouGov.

As an example, Gross pointed to Doritos and its revived Crash the Super Bowl contest, which ties in with the new NFL season. Between Q2 and Q3, Doritos’ ad awareness grew 2.6 percentage points, placing it within the top 10 best improvers.

For around four years, Mint Mobile’s creativity has relied on the charm of actor, marketer, and investor Ryan Reynolds, who owned a stake in the company before selling it to T-Mobile in 2023. North noted they’re constantly testing these spots to see which drive the most search queries and website traffic each time they air.

“I’m learning all year long, so when I have a place where I flex up my spend, I run my best creative,” he said.