Airtel Africa has been recognized for its digital marketing excellence with three nominations at the 2013 AfricaCom Awards.
Airtel Nigeria’s Padi Na Good Thing O! Campaign was nominated in the ‘Best Marketing Campaign’ category, while Airtel Ghana’s Frndz Face Off campaign was shortlisted in the “Best Digital Music Initiative” category. In East Africa, Airtel Kenya received a nomination in the “Best Mobile Campaign” category for its Free Your Smartphone digital campaign.
The AfricaCom Awards are recognised as the premier accolade for anyone operating in Africa’s digital market. Winners will be announced on 13 November 2013. The annual event will be held in Cape Town, South Africa.
Andre Beyers, Chief Marketing Officer at Airtel Africa, said: “This is fantastic news for us as all our three entries have been shortlisted in various categories. It is a great achievement in a year where entries exceeded previous years by far. These nominations are a testament that the strategies we have put in place are paying off”.
The Padi Na Good Thing O! Campaign, which is a celebration of the virtues and benefits of friendship, was shortlisted in “Best Marketing Campaign” category. Padi Na Good Thing O! (a local phrase for ‘Friends Are a Good Thing’) is a campaign which revolves around a young Nigerian singer, Half Dollar, who, though immensely gifted, cannot find his needed big break. His friends are his biggest fans and when called upon, they use their collective strength and efforts to get him a lucrative recording deal.
The Padi Na Good Thing O! Campaign had a solid buzz across digital spheres. From 70,000 fans in October 2012, the Airtel Nigeria Facebook Page went up to over 350,000 fans in just three months. The Airtel Nigeria Facebook interactions (Likes, comments, and shares) rose to over 530,000 in the same period. Before the online campaign, the commercial had been viewed just 11,000 times on YouTube. That went up to 680,000 during the campaign period. On Twitter, Airtel Nigeria acquired 14,000 new followers.
The Campaign was jointly conceptualised by Airtel and its digital creative agency, OgilvyOne. Speaking on the campaign, Shahzad Khan, OgilvyOne General Manager, said: “The campaign caught the attention of the youth in the country. A major testimony to this claim is the results achieved. During the campaign period, the sales went up by 39% as compared to the previous quarter.”
Airtel Ghana’s Frndz Face-Off received a nomination in the “Best Digital Music Initiative” category. This award recognizes a successful initiative that improves access to music services and recognizes local artists.
Commenting on the concept of the campaign, the Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, Philip Sowah said: “Ghanaians love music and love to dance, especially the Azonto! This was enough to give us the big idea. We decided to create an online dance battle. We invited the youth to create a dance routine and to upload cool photos on our platform. The team with the highest votes would win the opportunity to share the stage with Ghanaian Hip-Hop Artist EL”.
Airtel Ghana’s Frndz Face-Off was the first digital dance activation ever run in the country. The telecommunications company’s social media and digital assets benefitted greatly from the challenge. Airtel Ghana received over 48,604 new Facebook fans, 226, 229 YouTube views and over 109,300 visits and 218,127 page views on the Face-Off microsite.
Airtel’s third nomination, the Free Your Smartphone campaign, was driven by an insight revealing that Kenya consumers don’t use the smart features on their phones because they are afraid of incurring huge data bills. They buy smartphones for ego boost and social status. Airtel came up with data bundles for the masses. The Free Your Smartphone campaign promoted these bundles on Facebook and through digital media to drive to an online game promoting all the things you can do with social media. This lead to an average of 16% increase in sales.
According to Airtel Africa’s Chief Marketing Officer, Andre Beyers, the three nominations are a confirmation of the company’s commitment to realizing its vision of becoming the most loved brand in Africa by 2015. Mr. Beyers assured that Airtel would keep exploring various platforms to excite and engage telecoms consumers.
A survey conducted by the African Business magazine indicates that despite only a 3 year presence in Africa, Airtel is one of Africa’s top ten most admired global brands.
