2011 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

By integrating our message in the daily weather report, we developed an original and innovative way of reaching our target audience. In fact, this type of TV activity is the first of its kind in the Middle-East. In terms of meeting our objectives, we were able to communicate 21 destinations to Dubai TV’s audience of neatly 325,000 in each weather report (lasting 1m 44s). By using television and weather to communicate the wide reach of du’s roaming network, we’ve also managed to change consumer perceptions. Post campaign and nearly two-thirds of UAE mobile users now agree that du offers ‘good International roaming’, an increase of 43%. Finally, from a business perceptive incoming voice traffic has seen an uplift of 9%, whilst outgoing voice traffic has increased by 33%.

Creative Execution

Throughout the day Dubai TV runs its animated weather-map focusing on forecasts for all of the Middle-East and key cities around the World. Therefore, we partnered with Dubai TV and simply integrated our One World One Rate message into their daily weather report. When the report zoomed over a major city that featured within the One World plan, we heightened the association between the destination and the call plan by placing a du logo next to it. But it didn’t stop there. At the same time as the logo placement, we also branded a ticker at the bottom of the weather report detailing the One World offer and reinforcing the message of an attractive unified rate in specific travel zones.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

With 80% of the UAE’s population expatriates, international calling & outbound roaming plays an important role in du’s telecom business. However, with each country having a different call rate it makes communicating call plans incredibly difficult and often leads to confusion amongst consumers. In response du created ‘One World One Rate’ - a unified price plan of AED1.25 per minute for all incoming calls whilst roaming abroad, anytime, anywhere. The challenge was to find creative ways of communicating the wide reach of du’s roaming network and the simplicity of ‘One World One Rate’. We realized that the first place a person looks to find a country or city is a map. We also knew that the map most commonly seen on a day-to-day basis is a ‘weather-map’. Therefore, our strategy was to use this straightforward aperture as a way to showcase the geographical reach of the call plan.