2010 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

In just one month, 850 followers reaching over 255,000 Twitter accounts. (The total UAE twitter population is only 9000!) dutweets & du mentioned more than 25,000 times across Twitter. Over 800 direct messages sent to the ‘dutweets’ inbox. On average, 24 customer service queries solved per day. Over 700 negative comments turned into happy tweets. Free PR and numerous mentions online generated from an advertising budget of zero. Finally, 26 users switching from Etisalat to du in just one month. (No easy feat for a telecom provider).

Creative Execution

We launched ‘dutweets’ - the voice of du to the outside world, and a fully operational customer service channel - allowing consumers a direct, public line to tell du whatever they felt. From the start we made ‘dutweets’ appear as human as possible, tweeting informally and involving followers in the conversations. When something relating to customer service appeared, duTweets was there in an instant to ensure the issue was resolved immediately. Given the public forum nature of Twitter, it meant that satisfied customers become our brand advocates when relaying their positive comments and feedback to duTweets. du even assigned a dedicated customer service team to support our initiative.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Telecoms in the UAE has been a hot topic since du’s entry three years ago. With the internet fast becoming the gathering place for people to share, complain, and evangelize – it’s important to track and analyze the web for any sentiment towards brands. Whilst monitoring conversations for du we spotted that ‘customer service’ was the single most discussed topic and incidentally one that was clearly swaying brand loyalty. We knew that advertising alone would not be enough to influence those who were most vocal online. Therefore, we set about putting words into action and being the first in the region to truly harness the power of Twitter.