The Brief

Singapore is ranked the second most connected country in the world. On average every Singaporean has 1.5 mobile phones, but yet at the same time there are underprivileged people in the country who still aren't connected, creating a digital divide. As a telco, StarHub's first and foremost promise is to connect people. So we turned its 4G service into a 4Good platform and empowered subscribers to connect the disadvantaged. The Idea: For the first time in telecommunications, subscribers were given the power to donate their unused and leftover data, minutes and SMSes to charity – instead of letting them lapse and go to waste every month. The Direct Mechanics: - Instead of just making a donation, StarHub called on its customers to response and to help. - To opt in to the programme, all customers needed to do was reply to our campaign by SMS-ing <Opt-In> to a campaign number.

Creative Execution

Instead of just launching a 4G(eneration) mobile service, we launched a 4G(ood) mobile network. For the first time in telecommunications, customers were given the power and option to donate their unused and leftover data, minutes and SMSes to charity – instead of just letting them lapse and go to waste every month. All customers needed to do was opt in via a simple SMS. The data, minutes and SMSes collected were then encoded into prepaid SIM cards and donated to charities including Asian Women's Welfare Association, Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Society for the Physically Disabled and Association of the Visually Handicapped. Also, we started a charity drive that encouraged customers to donate their used mobiles to our adopted charities, empowering the disadvantaged with both the devices and the connectivity.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

The audience for the campaign cuts across both new and existing customers. The relevance to the audience is drawn from the consumer insight that unused minutes, data and SMSes from mobile plans are perceived to be going to waste every month. And as a society, we are used to donating the things we do not use e.g clothes, books, toys and furniture, so shouldn't it be the same for mobile technology too?

Results

In just the first month alone, over seven thousand customers responsed to the the campaign and opted in to the movement – pledging over 720,000 minutes, 3 million SMSes and 9 terabytes worth of 4G data in total. This translates into 500 days worth of talktime, 12 months of online video learning* and 344 years of SMSes**. (*Based on streaming online videos at 1080p **Based on Business Insider's median average of 726 SMSes sent per month.)