“Vodacom customers can get up to 100% of their data back, to use the next day. By using a minimum of 10MB of paid data, per day, and monitoring their usage on the daily dashboard, customers will receive between 10% and 100% of their data back," explained Zinhle Modiselle, executive head of brand marketing and communications.
"Customers will also receive daily reminders of allocations received and inactivity reminders. By staying active for seven days in a row, customers will stand the chance to win one of 15 Renault Dusters, which comes with a year’s supply of fuel to the value of R24,000, or stand in line to win one of three R1m 'Vodacom Millionaires' cash prizes," she continued.
I interviewed Modiselle around the strategy that went into this year’s creative and how it aligns with the company’s marketing objectives…
What was the brief and key insight?
Our annual summer campaign is always well received and highly anticipated by consumers. So every year the challenge is on for us to make sure we deliver on what our customers have come to expect.
The brief for this year’s Vodacom summer campaign was to create a campaign that would encourage and inspire customers to change their data behaviour.
Our goal was to address the negative data price perception. We want to help customers understand that data buys more than just minutes – it buys and enables lifestyle change.Of course summer is all about fun, and research revealed that our customers look forward to connecting with friends and family, whilst they enjoy living their best lives during this period. Their phones are a part of their summer lives, but money for airtime and data is always an issue. This often results in customers either restricting their usage because of the cost of data or even going for days without data.
With this in mind, we created a campaign that would reward every customer that uses data, in doing so, we would enable these customers to connect to the things they love, every day.
How does it work, exactly?
Customers can either dial *133# from their mobile phones or download the latest My Vodacom app, to opt-in to the campaign, which runs until 10 February 2019. Subscribers then need to use paid for data, daily, to qualify for a bonus reward allocation the next day. Subscribers will be allocated a data reward of between 10% and 100% of the amount of paid for data used the previous day.
By staying active for seven days in a row, customers will receive a weekly streak bonus and get one entry into a draw for a monthly grand prize. For every weekly streak bonus allocated, subscribers will be entered into the monthly draw.
Why did you decide to go for a digitally-led campaign, and what makes this Vodacom’s biggest yet?
We decided to go for a digitally-led campaign this year after conducting deep data analysis on the current behaviour of our customers, which resulted in rolling out personalised content that would speak to our various target audiences. Vodacom realises that our target market is made up of multitaskers, social media users, streamers, browsers, app downloaders and messengers.
Given this diverse audience, we had to ensure that we took into account the lifestyle, behaviours and interests of our customers. Not only that, but we had to also understand the number of active days these customers spend on the network, their data usage, the types of smartphones these customers use, as well as their location.
Having taken all of these factors into consideration, we realised that the best approach would be to create a campaign that would allow our customers to become digital multitaskers, and encourage our customers to become more adventurous with their data.
How is this year’s creative distinct compared to competing campaigns?
What makes this year’s campaign so different are the three unique approaches we’ve taken. Firstly, we’ve focused on a content production process, which is adapted for usage on digital channels.
Secondly, this year’s campaign is focused on unlocking proudly South African emerging talent. We’ve worked with up-and-coming SA stars, such as Mlindo from the Sony stable, who will be the official sound of summer. We’ve been working with Tiisetso, a rising star from a disadvantaged background, and now features in two of some of the most popular Mzansi soapies. And lastly, but definitely not least – we’ve continued our relationship with Thabang, a producer from Sereti TV, who received his first big break doing the Vodacom TV ad earlier this year, in addition to having worked on the Ticket advert. He has been recognised as the emerging star in TV production, having produced soapies like The Herd.
We’ve also added an element of sponsorship integration. This summer, we’ve opted to use the heartbeat of South African soccer, and leverage our sports sponsorship on every touchpoint - we've got sponsorship activations lined up at all Pirates and Chiefs games.
What was the thinking behind the campaign from a strategy and tactic side?
This year’s campaign strategy was designed to address data price perception, inspire data behaviour change and drive data consumption. We want more customers to multitask on our network with reasons to keep using data.
We also wanted to include a strong social sharing aspect which we have seen. As people get their data back they share the news with friends and family on social media in a bid to encourage them to do the same.
How does this align with the company’s overall direction when it comes to marketing?
Vodacom is all about connecting our customers to live a better today and build a better tomorrow. That’s why we want to ensure that customers can look forward to connecting with each other this summer, and be rewarded for doing so. Not only that, but we have made sure that customers can rest easy, knowing that they will have the best network coverage experience, whilst having fun and sharing those summer experiences with their friends and family.
What are you most looking forward to this summer?
We are looking forward to happy customers with more data to connect with the people they love and live their best lives over the holiday season. A quick look at social media suggests that we are well on our way to achieving that.
Join the conversation on Twitter @Vodacom #SummerGigs.
