ROBI DHONNOBAD

TitleROBI DHONNOBAD
BrandROBI AXIATA LTD.
Product / ServiceTELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
EntrantBITOPI ADVERTISING Dhaka, BANGLADESH
Entrant Company BITOPI ADVERTISING Dhaka, BANGLADESH
Advertising Agency BITOPI ADVERTISING Dhaka, BANGLADESH
Production Company APPLEBOX FILMS DHAKA, BANGLADESH

Credits

Name Company Position
Chowdhury Fazle Shakib Bitopi Advertising Limited Creative Head
IRTIZA FAROOQ Bitopi Advertising Limited ASSOCIATE ACCOUNT DIRECTOR
Nujhat Hossain Bitopi Advertising Limited Account Manager
TARIF ZAMAN Bitopi Advertising Limited ASSOCIATE ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Tanvir Chowdhury Bitopi Advertising Limited Associate Creative Director
MAHEDY MILON Bitopi Advertising Limited Copywriter
PIPLU R. KHAN APPLEBOX FILMS Director
MAHBUB RAHMAN Bitopi Advertising Limited Art Director
Farooq Shams Bitopi Advertising Limited Executive Planning Director
Mir Mostafa Muzaffar Bitopi Advertising Limited Planning Manager

The Campaign

Robi, the second largest telco in Bangladesh, wanted to launch a customer loyalty program. The challenge was to stand out in a market already cluttered with competitive programs and schemes. We discovered that Bangladeshis are used to getting things done for them without having to say thank you. We saw the opportunity to use our campaign to motivate Bangladeshis to thank each other. We named the program Dhonnobad, which means “Thank You” in Bangla and launched it through a 360 degree integrated campaign. Thought provoking teasers ignited a wave of self realization and discussion across the country. A heavy burst on all ATL media hammered home the power behind a simple thank you. On Bangladesh’s Independence Day, the campaign culminated in a nationwide activation where people thanked the country’s war heroes. The hashtag #dhonnobad started trending as for the first time ever, a Bangladeshi loyalty program became a social movement.

Success of the Campaign

To date, Dhonnobad’s Facebook page has generated over 69,000 likes and 3,000 shares for the campaign’s flagship video. Over 130,000 users registered in the first month alone- an industry phenomenon. It received over 580,000 views for the campaign site and 828,000 thank you messages were shared through activations. During Independence Day, a further 27,320 messages of gratitude in the form of letters, photos, voice messages and stories poured in from every corner of the country as people thanked the nation's freedom fighters. Online, people expressed gratitude for all the favors they received from their family, friends, coworkers and even strangers. #dhonnobad started trending as the campaign transcended the category- and for the first time a customer loyalty program became a social movement. Robi’s brand preference went up massively with studies showing that 266,000 more people had felt a stronger relevance with the brand in comparison with other telecoms.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

Thought provoking teasers preceded the campaign launch asking: “Did you say thank you?” Powerful messages were rolled out in a massive campaign launch across all media; these included television and radio commercials, billboards, prints ads, online posts, POSM and targeted activations. As people started talking about the campaign, the hashtag ‘dhonnobad’ was heavily promoted through content posts and competitions on social media. As people realized the power behind a simple thank you, the campaign started trending and millions of Bangladeshis from across the world logged in to engage with the brand on various platforms. On the 26th of March, Bangladesh’s Independence Day, thousands of Bangladeshis, inspired by the campaign, shared their own stories while thanking the freedom fighters in their own families. These stories were shared through massive on ground installations created across all eight divisions of the country as well as over 300 of the regional media channels.

In a market where every other teleco offers a customer loyalty program, Robi users were getting increasingly irate about not having a rewards scheme of their own. Since, other telecoms had already established similar initiatives with comparable offers, Robi’s challenge, as the second largest telecom, was to launch a program without looking like a ‘me too’. Despite being the last to launch a loyalty program, we wanted ours to become the most meaningful for Bangladeshis. We discovered that traditionally, the act of thanking is often perceived to place one in someone else’s debt- something which Bangladeshis find uncomfortable. This has created a culture where Bangladeshis tend not say thank-you; spouses rarely thank each other, children seldom thank parents and bosses hardly ever thank employees. We named our loyalty program Dhonnobad and used it to thank users instead of just rewarding them.