2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Egyptians living outside the capital have more pronounced duality rates (less loyal to Vodafone). Hence, we had to cater to a larger audience. A barrier stemmed from Egypt’s cultural diversity. And so, we needed to change how our brand communicates by tailoring to each and being inclusive of all. We created an experience beyond film. We needed diverse populations to relate to our brand. And so, we made them act as teams in a tournament. We created chants, emblems, customized outdoors and recharge cards. And soon, one campaign turned into a question of national pride.

Background

In Egypt, there are mobile phones more than there are people. The latter signifies that one person can have more than one sim-card. The duality rate has reached 68%, driven by the mass segment’s hunger for daily offers. Hence, directly affecting Vodafone brand consideration rates. Duality rates outside the capital were significantly higher, and despite the latter our communication had always targeted the Cairenes. Egypt being diverse, cities acted as sole countries with specific behaviors, cultural norms and identities. With the following objectives, being relatable was key to ensure a shift in behavior and tap into the non-Cairene’s duality rates: - Decreasing duality rates by increasing the daily active base. - Increasing mass revenues by increasing recharges. - Changing governorates’ Vodafone brand perception.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Capitalizing on the pride and sense of belonging that each population holds to its governorate, we created the first national recharging tournament: Top-up for the love of your city! Further encouraging people to top-up, we treated cities as distinct teams, and tailored all campaign elements to serve for the different identity of each city.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Three quarters of the population lives outside Cairo. Despite the latter, the centralization of power has left very little room for opportunities outside the capital. And while everything put the capital under the spotlight, so did telecom providers with their communication. Having the latter focused on the mass consumer living in Cairo needed to change. With a large contribution and a high duality rate, we needed to tap into a new audience: the non-Cairene mass consumer. We found that populations living outside the capital have distinct identities, cultural norms and traditions. With a heightened sense of patriotism and attachment to cultural regional identities, it seems as if they’re living in a country within the country. This translates into a fanatical attitude towards their lands. Tapping into this fanatical spirit and sense of pride was key to unlocking the territory that was left behind due to centralization in Egypt.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

We introduced the tournament through a film that hammered on the distinctiveness of the populations. We studied their habits, looks, dialects and instruments and created a rap-battle like song where we put the cities into direct competition. The copy launched on television as well as digital platforms to ensure higher reachability. Our teams were fully equipped with recharge cards, emblems, and outdoors. We created different recharge cards catering to the visual identity of each region. Additionally, we created emblems that were inspired from the cities’ identities. These were treated as flags and printed as bumper stickers. Moreover, we customized the outdoors to deliver on the distinctiveness. Using our brand asset -the genie- we tailored his looks according to the populations’, and we targeted our messaging to communicate to each city differently. Finally, we created a chant to each city and roamed Egyptian neighborhoods with our genie to cheer the people.

List the results (30% of vote)

From a business standpoint, we had to increase the daily active base and recharges to counteract duality and increase brand consideration rates. The campaign resulted in increasing the daily active base by 4%, which marks the highest increase to this date. Additionally, it increased the number of recharges by 2%. From a communication standpoint, as this campaign was tailored to include the different Egyptian cities, results showed greater reaction among people living outside the capital. The campaign scored above the norm in branding and resonance. With the norm being 60 for branding and 66 for resonance, the campaign scored 67 in branding and 70 in resonance. More specifically, the campaign highly scored in branding and resonance in the Delta region and Upper Egypt. The campaign also created hype online, with people cheering for their cities and encouraging one another to top-up.