2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Winning the brand race is critical during the month of Ramadan, the super bowl of Egyptian advertising. Every brand launches a campaign during this month since it carries the highest TV viewership of the year. When all operator brands compete fiercely, media spend is multiplied. Media spent during Ramadan constitutes one third of the annual media investment, which makes sustaining campaigns on air, with the media inflation rates, extremely costly. Additionally, big brands were being criticized for such heavy level of investments, especially during such dire economic conditions. This fierce competition also results into clutter. In addition, in Ramadan 2014 the stakes were higher because Ramadan overlapped, for two weeks, with the football World Cup. With all those variables, instead of conforming to the Ramadan advertising formula, Vodafone this year decided to play things differently and we created our own show!

Results

During Ramadan, Vodafone’s challenge was increasing brand trust and reducing their inactive user base. Vodafone decided to adopt a strategy that doesn’t follow traditional advertising to demonstrate its trust through entertaining content that gives back to the people. Vodafone decided to create a rewarding live experience in the form of a television game show "Ramadan to you”, giving away 100,000 pounds to a Vodafone user every day. A deal was made with MBC Masr, the top watched channel in Ramadan to air Vodafone’s program for free during peak time, in addition to several spots for promos directing viewers to the program. A week before Ramadan we aired an unbranded teaser revolving around a phone call that win you 100,000 Pounds. The teaser was supported by an outdoor network that transformed to Vodafone branding on the 1st day of Ramadan. Radio copies and digital banners encouraging users to watch the episodes were set out in motion. The show featured a popular trio of comedians together with different contests daily for selecting random numbers, each with a twist that is very true to the Egyptian culture. With each episode came a theatrical engagement with the contestants and special appearances by celebrities. If a Vodafone customer finds the 5 selected numbers in his mobile number, they can be eligible to win by sending an SMS to the code (100000). Each episode ended with a live segment, awarding the previous day’s winner with their cheque to enhance the show’s credibility, and accordingly reinforce brand trust. Customers needed to watch the program daily, as to send the SMS to the code instantly after the winning numbers are announced. This mechanics were set to increase interaction, narrow down the pool of possible winners, and most importantly, entice customers to reactivate their Vodafone SIM.

After the show's airing, social media websites were buzzing with overwhelming reactions, the show's hashtag trended. Local social media celebrities and bloggers praised the "giving back" initiative and after every episode users interacted with the Vodafone Egypt account on twitter. Users cried over their misfortune for having the right numbers but the wrong network, while others created memes to express their frustration. Some non Vodafone users went the extra mile of watching the episodes and alerting their friends who had Vodafone lines to get them a chance to win. Youtubers even created parodies and covers of the show's intro song.

A) The “Ramadan To You” game show was the 3rd top rated show in Ramadan in the cluttered Ramadan scene (1). B) Within 30 days, he number of inactive users has decreased by 2% reaching 40.6% (2). C) Media Spend: The overall media spend in 2014 has decreased by $9 millions (3) in comparison to the Vodafone Ramadan spend in 2013. During Ramadan 2014, the $2 million spent in were only dedicated to the Radio, digital and out of home mediums. The TV spend in Ramadan was nil. While each of the competing brands has spent each $13 million each across all mediums – inclusive of TV (4) Sources: (1) Agency research, Ramadan Viewership, July 2014 (2) Client research, Ramadan Daily Tracker, July 2014 (3) Media Agency Data, Media Spent, 2013 (4) Media Agency Data, Media Spent, 2014