2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

When you’re the last entrant in a market that’s small, conservative and driven strictly by price-oriented promotions advertised through traditional media, you have to do things the unconventional way. That’s the story of VIVA’s entry into Bahrain. In a short span of 5 years it has surged ahead of Batelco and Zain, its primary competition and won over a lion’s share of the market by way of it aggressive pricing and audacious advertising strategy. With traditional media being the primary mode of communication, the scope of Branded Content is limited to merely sponsorship branding.

Results

In 2014, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of Bahrain (TRA) conducted an independent survey and ranked VIVA as the No. 1 network provider. One of these parameters was the ‘Best Voice Quality’. The Challenge was finding a relevant touch point. The Objective: More than communicating the promise of ‘Best Voice Quality’ to its customers, VIVA wanted them to experience it for themselves. The Strategy: We knew that over 60% of VIVA’s customer base used the Customer Helpline on a daily basis. We knew that they would first need to go through an Interactive Voice Response System (IVR). There’s couldn’t be a better way to communicate the promise of ‘Best Voice Quality’ than by using a brand interface that is completely audio based. The IVR as a touch point is known to be boring and presented us with the perfect opportunity to deliver our message while maximizing relevance. The Execution: We transformed the robotic, pre-recorded messages of the Interactive Voice Response System into an engaging experience by having the same instructions recorded in 3 distinct styles, in the 3 language options (Arabic, English & Hindi) that are typically made available to customers. To dramatize the benefits of the ‘Best Voice Quality’, we got a traditional Arabic singer, an opera singer for English and a Classical Indian singer, to record the IVR instructions. By using 3 distinct voices, not to mention 3 different genres of music, we were able to get a majority of VIVA’s customers to relate to the idea.

Over 60% of VIVA’s customer base uses the Customer Helpline on a daily basis for various enquiries like prepaid recharging, bill payments, product launches, special offers etc. We knew that they would first need to go through an Interactive Voice Response System (IVR). That was our captive audience right there. That was our opportunity. We just needed an engaging idea.

With 60% of our customers calling the helpline for various enquiries, we were able to maximize message exposure and relevance. Moreover, in using VIVA’s IVR System, we created a new offline communication channel where customers could experience the best sound quality from Bahrain’s best network.