Laughter and Christmas go together I

• 80% of people look forward to Christmas, a 6% decline compared to last year
• Holiday vouchers make great presents
• Joy most commonly associated with T-Mobile

Prague, 8 December 2009 - Czechs are generally thought to be chronic complainers. Yet statistics prove that we are not so bad, as revealed by a T-Mobile survey conducted by the g82 agency with the aim of getting answers to questions about joy and laughter, namely in connection with the upcoming Christmas holiday.

We spend Christmas with our families and look forward to it, even if it is stressful

Despite all the rush and hectic running around the shops, we still manage to take a break and create a peaceful and calm atmosphere within our family circle. Peace, family, tree, presents, cookies, snow - these are the words we relate to this significant holiday and reasons why the majority of us (80%) look forward to it. Although we must admit that last year 6% more people had a favourable view of the holiday season. The holiday is enjoyed mostly by women and people aged 30-45 but also (and this is quite a surprising difference) by those of us who laugh at least once a day (89% compared to 71% of those who laugh less often).

It is not surprising that a vast majority of us spend the Christmas holiday with our families (93%), but 2% of people spend Christmas completely alone; 1% of people do not celebrate Christmas at all.

Christmas is associated with smiling, laughter, joy and happiness. But Christmas does not arouse only positive emotions. Stress, commercialism and shopping are words often related to the holiday. Typically for the secular Czech society, only few of us think primarily of religion or Christian holidays.

Everyone looks forward to something different when speaking about Christmas. But some things come into everyone's mind: peace, the holiday atmosphere and the shining eyes of children. We often look forward to Baby Jesus (the Czech equivalent of Santa Claus), days off from work, peace and quiet, and no stress, if possible. Commercialism ("the magic spirit of Christmas has disappeared, society has become commercialized and Christmas has become a tough business"), stress and wasted money ("too much money down the drain, too much food we won't eat, insane rush")  are the biggest reasons why a full 20% of us turn our backs on this holiday of peace and joy.

 Presents? Holiday vouchers predominate

In a hypothetical contest for presents with "the biggest smile", holiday vouchers ranked first (32%) out of 16 contenders, preferred mostly by women, followed by books (29%), hand-made gifts (26%), cash (23%) and mobile telephones (19%). Holiday vouchers, books and hand-made gifts bring us a real joy (though we could consider this rather a white lie). Handsets ranked as the fifth best gift, and even as the third best among people aged 26-45. In general, we can say that all the gifts bring joy mainly to young people aged 15-29.

Mobile Christmas: I want to win a handset and the T-Mobile campaign makes me laugh

Even though the majority of us are content with our mobile phones (84%), a full 45% would like to get a new handset for Christmas. At the same time, 84% of people would be happy if their mobile operator gave them a chance to win one in a Christmas contest. The perception that there are never enough mobile phones applies to both groups, i.e. to those who are happy with their mobile phones and to those who are not.

More than one-third of us (38%) pay attention to the Christmas offers of mobile operators and more than half (55%) like mobile operators' Christmas advertisements. The current campaigns have made one-fourth of respondents laugh, most often the T-Mobile spot (cited by 50% of those who laughed at some of the advertisements).

More than half of the respondents agree that the word "joy" now suits some of the mobile operators. A full 43% of respondents associate joy with T-Mobile (VF 33%; T02 24%). It is apparent that people tend to view their respective operators in a positive light.

To be continued.

About the survey

The quantitative survey was prepared in November 2009 by the g82 agency. The agency conducted managed computer interviews in households with a total of 397 residential users of mobile phones and Czech mobile operators aged 16-59. Data was weighted by the overall market penetration of mobile operators. The survey was divided into three parts - Christmas: how people look forward to the holiday, what makes them happy and brings a smile to their faces; Laughter: how often people laugh and what makes them laugh; Telephone and advertising: Monitoring of operators' Christmas offers, and which operator can be associated with the word "joy".

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.