Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Ufone organized the biggest on-ground community engagement initiative in the history of war-torn Western and Southern frontier provinces of Pakistan. As a result, Ufone successfully tapped into regions that had previously been invisible to marketers because of the utter lack of basic infrastructure, and security challenges. Towns bordering Afghanistan and Iran that were once synonymous with militancy were transformed overnight by their love for sports and fierce competition. Ufone Football Cup became the biggest calendar event, creating a whole new platform for the brand to engage and communicate with this disenfranchised yet very important segment of its target market.

Background

With revenues plateauing after years of explosive growth, Pakistani telecom operators were scrambling to secure their revenues by cornering the mostly urban high-revenue segments. Amidst this, Ufone, a brand that takes great pride in its Pakistani-ness, decided to take on the challenge of tapping into and empowering the disenfranchised populations of war and poverty-stricken rural regions of Pakistan. Far-flung tribal regions in rural Baluchistan & Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are devoid of even the most basic infrastructure, with two-thirds of the population surviving below the poverty-line of $10/day. These “media black-out” zones had virtually remained invisible to the state & private sector and represented the last frontier of growth for telcos. The challenge was to come up with a strategy that could create a platform in the absence of any media infrastructure to engage and communicate with these populations.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Years of ‘war-on-terror’ and insurgency robbed the regions of rural Baluchistan and KPK of any meaningful community activities. A harrowingly low per-capita and lack of any infrastructure meant avenues for entertainment were limited and the youth was stuck in a never-ending cycle of unemployment and poverty. However, the proud tribal Pashtuns and Baloch although fiercely conservative and mistrustful of anything foreign have a great tradition of outdoor sports, athleticism, and competitive spirit. Ufone decided to leverage this love for outdoor sports to organize an annual event for a sport that could be played with minimal infrastructure. Thus, the idea for “Ufone Football Cup” was born. In a cricket-crazy nation of Pakistan, even with its massive street power and fandom, football has been discriminated against. It was imperative that the creative idea helped build a long-term contract between the brand, the sport, and the local market.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Ufone Football Cup was meant to hack the communication challenges of reaching remote rural regions by creating a new channel/platform to directly engage with the target audience and activate brand connect. The youth was of particular interest as it represented the biggest segment and growth potential. The youth had also been the biggest affectee of years of war, extremism, and displacement. Without any meaningful social engagement, the talented youngsters of the region were at risk of falling back into the cycle of violence. To ensure acceptance of the idea and genuine public engagement, it was crucial that we enabled local communities, youth, tribal elders and political workers to design and organize an event for themselves that was community-led. And so, Ufone decided to partner up with the community itself to establish Ufone Football Cup, a beacon of hope for millions.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

For the first time ever in Pakistan, a country that doesn’t even have a functioning football association, a brand reached out to district governments, tribal elders, youth, and political workers from the remotest rural towns to organize the biggest regional football event in history. In collaboration with local community and football teams, grounds were restored in each of the participating district headquarter. Communities from these cities were funded and enabled to recruit, train and outfit teams of local talent. From daily subsistence allowance, nutrition-based diet to professional football gear; important facilities and logistics were provided to players and match officials.To further its reach among local youth, an activation setup with fun games and veteran football players visited schools and colleges in the neighbouring areas. Ufone entered partnership with Pakistan’s biggest TV-channel PTV Sports, to ensure the local talent and a soft image of these regions reached national and international audience

List the results (30% of vote)

As part of Ufone Football Cup, not only did teams from remotest rural towns participated in a national level sports-event, but for the first time ever, entire Pakistan was glued to its screens in support of these teams from the previously invisible parts of the country. Unprecedent images of enormous crowds at football matches in towns previously notorious for militancy flooded the national media. • +2100 players and officials from 39 cities • An unprecedented 100,000+ on-ground spectators • Earned media value of over $500K • +7.8 Million TV and digital viewership But perhaps the most important of all was the goodwill and brand love that this initiative resulted in for Ufone. • 4% Quarterly increase in brand’s Top of Mind from the region • Significant increase in brand health’s imagery parameters: o 17% quarterly increase in “Brand I like” o 23% increase in “Brand that cares for me”