4G4GOOD

Title4G4GOOD
BrandSTARHUB
Product / Service4G
CategoryA02. Corporate Responsibility
EntrantDDB GROUP SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Entrant Company DDB GROUP SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Advertising Agency DDB GROUP SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Media Agency MINDSHARE ASIA PACIFIC Singapore, SINGAPORE
Production Company FREEFLOW PRODUCTIONS SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Neil Johnson Ddb Group Singapore Chief Creative Officer
Joji Jacob Ddb Group Singapore Group Executive Creative Director
Khalid Osman Ddb Group Singapore Creative Director
Lester Lee Ddb Group Singapore Creative Director
Mahesan M. Ddb Group Singapore Senior Copywriter
Wu Yangwei Ddb Group Singapore Senior Art Director
Rowena Bhagchandani DDB Group Singapore Managing Director
Jonathan Lim DDB Group Singapore Group Account Director
James Tan DDB Group Singapore Account Director
Roslee Yusoff FreeFlow Productions Film Director
Vanessa Thomas FreeFlow Productions Executive Producer
Khairul Lamin DDB Group Singapore Creative Group Head/Digital

The Campaign

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 growing digital divide. As a telco, StarHub's first and foremost promise is to connect people - all people. So, for its 4G launch campaign, we turned its 4G service into a 4Good platform and empowered subscribers to help connect the disadvantaged. 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. 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 the adopted charities, empowering the disadvantaged with both devices and connectivity. The media buzz and PR hype surrounding the launch of 4G mobile technology provided the perfect opportunity for a PR-centric campaign. And by launching more than just a 4th Generation mobile service, we surprised the market and captured and owned the media and PR share of voice.

The Brief

Our objective was simple: help differentiate StarHub from its competitors. Our challenge was a little more complex: help differentiate StarHub 4G technology from its competitor's 4G technology when it is actually the same technology.

Results

In just the first month alone, over seven thousand customers responded 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.

Execution

To be a part of the 4Good mobile movement, 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, empowering the disadvantaged with connectivity as well as devices. To communicate the 4Good movement, we integrated a mix of media channels including TV, Online Video, Print, Radio, Social, In-Store and Mobile. We launched the campaign with a PR event at one of the adopted charities and earned over $70,000 in media coverage and features by leading online and offline news channels including the national newspaper - The Straits Times.

The Situation

StarHub, a telco, wanted to launch its 4G mobile network. This technology is hyped by the media to be the future of mobile, so much so that it is termed LTE – the long-term evolution of mobile tech. We saw the media buzz around the launch of 4G mobile technology as an excellent PR opportunity, and considering that this technology has the potential to change the world, we tried to change the way we look at it. What if the G in 4G stood for something more than just 4th Generation?

The Strategy

The strategy of the campaign is offer a point-of-difference to what is essentially parity technology and in doing so capture and own the media buzz and PR share of voice during the launch of the technology. The relevance of the campaign to our target audience is drawn from the customer insight that unused minutes, data and SMSes from mobile plans are often perceived to be going to waste every month. And if as a society, we are used to donating the things we do not use e.g. clothes, books, toys and furniture, why shouldn't we do the same for mobile technology? With that insight, we took the strategic approach of what we call digital charity.