Why is this work relevant for PR?

Ufone organized the biggest on-ground community engagement initiative in the history of the restive Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of Pakistan, to provide the local people a chance to break free from the misery of insecurity and poverty. The long existent law and order situation meant that there was no active presence of mainstream media in these provinces; therefore, the activity offered Ufone, a valuable opportunity to leverage the event by launching a large-scale public relation activity by engaging the local community and mobilizing regional and national media to generate favourable sentiment for the brand.

Background

The far-flung Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions have languished at the peripheries of mainstream socio-economic system due to perpetual neglect and decades of armed militancy. Since the regions are no major economic hubs, they have faced an unrelenting media blackout at the national level. A sense of dissatisfaction pervades the regions due to abject poverty and continuous marginalization. Moreover, since time immemorial, media have framed these areas through a slender lens of destruction and chaos only. Ufone, being a proud Pakistani company stepped forward to provide the youth of the region a valuable opportunity to showcase their skills, a chance to celebrate cultural identity and earn themselves respect and empathy they very well deserved. 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)

Socio-economic deprivation and cyclical violence reduced the local communities to suspicious minds and anxious souls that were mistrustful of anything foreign. The only respite they found was in outdoor sports, athleticism and competitive spirit. Ufone decided to leverage this love for outdoor sports; however, since the regions have a serious dearth of sporting facilities, we had to choose a sport that required minimal infrastructure and equipment; ideally a sport that needed only a ball and a grass field to engage two teams in a competition. That is how the idea of Ufone Football Cup was conceived. The region being a close-knit society relied heavily on their internal networks to stay connected with each other. We envisioned our big idea to revolve around partnership with local correspondents from regional media, help build their capacity and secure coverage opportunities on national circuit.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Ufone Football Cup needed ground-breaking work rooted in earned media that would create unprecedented reach to rest of the country, delivering game-changing awareness for the brand. Therefore, Ufone organized the sporting event to give a useful platform to the local youth to showcase their talent and to usher in a unique entertainment opportunity that would help build strong public relations for the brand. Although the local population is increasingly conservative but takes immense pride in their cultural identity. Therefore, the events were adorned with regional musical performances to ensure maximum interest and engagement. Ufone ensured large scale engagements at all levels in the communities to motivate participation. Local sports leadership, mainstream media journalists and social media influencers were engaged and the players were provided proper kits and boarding and lodging facilities. Resultantly, Ufone strongly registered its brand loyalty in the regions.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

A carefully crafted PR plan was devised to ensure our efforts attracted generous media coverage. 3 months prior to the start of the tournament, we started the PR groundwork – engaging with local sports journalists who helped us understand on-ground challenges and reach out to relevant circles. Ufone invited mainstream media journalists from metropolitan cities to develop exclusive stories and reports. Strategic partnerships were forged with the national television, leading blogs and radio channels. Local radio was instrumental in mobilizing interest and engagement at local community level. The Ufone Football Cup was live streamed connecting the event with hundreds of thousands of viewers faraway from the stadiums. Hundreds of stories, dozens of op-eds and electronic media reports were printed and broadcasted around the event. The media visibility and hype was such that Super Champion team of the tournament was accorded a royal welcome by the entire city with garlands and

List the results (30% of vote)

For the first time ever, entire Pakistan was glued to its screens in support of teams from the previously invisible parts of the country. Unprecedent images of enormous crowds at football matches flooded the national media. The campaign generated a remarkable 478 pieces of media coverage, including lead stories on sports pages of Pakistan’s biggest newspapers and stories by TV channels. The work generated an incredible $502,110 earned media including in-depth, news coverage during hourly bulletins, sports programming, radio, and online media. A total viewership of 7.8+ Million watched the 5 days of live football through TV and digital broadcast. But perhaps the most important of all was the goodwill this initiative resulted in for Ufone; 4% Quarterly increase in brand’s Top of Mind from the region, positive increase in brand health’s imagery parameters (17% quarterly increase in “Brand I like” and 23% increase in “Brand that cares for me”)