2018 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

The internet is unfair, so don’t use it fairly. Being the democratic country, it always has, Egypt has been implementing a fair usage policy as a capping mechanism on internet usage. Challenging the policy that we all have been silently applying and using, Vodafone will launch its clear message of objection through the real unlimited data proposition. But to challenge such a dark fact and frustrations, we needed to go big or go home. And who better to advocate our claim than someone who was audacious, confident and unfearful? Abla Fahita. The internet born puppet who changed the digital world becoming a sensational celebrity and presenter. Using her hometown, the internet, we easily dominated the digital world, with our ambassador telling them the one thing they’ve always wanted to hear; keep scrolling.

Creative Execution

Transparent entertainment was our method of narrating real experiences, through an original-catchy tune, users couldn’t get out of their heads. Abla Fahita, the loved yet ruthless puppet, presenter and entertainer dominating the scene, was the perfect representation of our audience’s homes and her own birthplace; the internet. Being an integral part of our daily-lives, we reflected her existence everywhere, and literally placed her inside the lives of the frustrated users across the ad; lamp, inside of a fridge, gym-poster, and as far as living in your bathtub. Through the original hit, she narrated real pain-points resulting from internet traps; looping videos, virtually dating a man you pretending to be a woman, mislabeled videos and music. The copy was released online, on TV, supported by outdoor coverage, Point-of-Sale material and an interactive-digital campaign. When you complain on Vodafone’s page, Fahita’s attitude was the reply you got as a GIF.

Anyone can point out the fears or frustrations we face; it’s how we say it that makes it bold enough to start a conversation that matters. Not only did we challenge the fair usage policy, but we challenged our culture. Taking the internet by storm, our audience couldn’t help but ride our fearless train. • Digital viewership reached 45M views. • Engagement flew to almost 400,000. • Our disputable lingo in the song’s lyrics integrated itself into daily conversations. Exceeding all targets, the business also won. The hourly bundle achieved: • 17% active base increase. • 5,300,000 subscribers. • 6,800,000 EGP in transactions.

Every internet user in Egypt feels like a victim; trapped by the fair usage policy applied by every provider across the industry and other categories. A frustration expressed by everyone, but never tackled because even providers needed to stick to that policy. Lost in conversations, we dug deep across social conversations. Deep enough to understand the detailed experiences that resulted to such frustrations. And they all led us to the same conclusions; users believe that the internet is unfair, so why they forced to use it fairly? The online youth was thereby our main target. They had an untapped frustration, and we had the solution for it. Using Abla Fahita, we created an emotional connection between our data platform and our online users. All we needed was to translate their experiences through her, making her their advocate for their online rights. Because it’s unfair to have fair usage policy.