Vodafone Egypt (Unlimited Internet) Campaign.. A Case Study
November 20, 2010 | Tarek NasrAdvertising, Social Media | Crisis Management, Egypt, Touch Point Integration, Vodafone Egypt | 14 comments
In this very important post I will be tackling the case study of the Vodafone Egypt “Back to the Future” campaign.
This post will not be so much on giving my opinion as it will be about analyzing this interesting case (which should be taught in university marketing classes moving forward) from a marketing and social media perspective giving insight to how brands market and use social media as well as highlighting some of the main sticking points of the campaign.
How do brands and their advertising agencies come up with campaigns (particularly celebrity endorsed campaigns)
The process is simple; the brand; Vodafone gives a brief detailing the message they want to get across which was “unlimited internet” and the audience they are targeting (16 – 30 year olds in the case of this campaign) and lets the agency go to work.
In return the agency comes up with several creative concepts and if celebrity endorsements are deemed to be a good fit (they mainly work in this age bracket) then they suggest several options to the client (the suggestion was spot on riding on the high of the trio’s recent film release and also the fact that they haven’t done ads before means that upon seeing them you would directly associate them with the campaign and the brand).
The stars of the Vodafone Unlimited Internet Ad Campaign
Upon approval of the initial concept and the endorsee the agency then sets a meeting with the celebrity to brainstorm over the idea being that at the end of the day its their face plastered on the ads; thus please be aware that the actors’ definitely had a say on the creative execution.
The client then goes about giving final approval and the ads are shot and aired accordingly.
The initial reaction from the audience
Upon airing of the ads the blogosphere erupted condemning the ad and voicing disfavor via twitter, facebook, youtube, tumblr, personal blogs and more.
The consistent tweet-ups and close connection amongst influential social media users in Egypt led to a concise and well-organized effort that reached international proportions with the icing on the cake being Mostafa Mourad filming a well thought out youtube video documenting himself as he gave back his Vodafone USB stick.
Furthermore many of the angered and enraged audience took to visiting offline locations such as Vodafone stores and calling their call center to voice displeasure with the ad.
Vodafone’s initial handling of the situation
Vodafone handled the situation by deleting user comments and deleting the video and the re-uploading it on their youtube channel to give themselves a fresh start somehow hoping the audience wouldn’t notice.
At the offline sites Vodafone was unresponsive in terms of handling complaints sometimes going so far as to belittle the callers further enraging them.
Follow up reaction
All hell broke loose as the Anti-Vodafone tag became a trending topic and everyone’s twitter stream was flooded with tweets and links to videos, blog posts and more regarding the ludicrousy of the campaign.
Vodafone’s apology and pulling the ad
After getting continually bombarded with complaints and no longer being able to hit the delete button fast enough to remove all the user comments Vodafone surrendered by releasing a statement removing the video online and vowing to remove it on TV after Eid due to difficulty in removing the spot during Eid (which is viable as their media agency who are in charge of media allocation and airing are on holiday)
Final Audience Reaction
After pulling the ad many proceeded to thank Vodafone for their prompt response to their objections with the ad and returned to the company again brilliantly highlighted by a Mostafa Mourad video thanking the firm and using Vodafone USB stick (albeit one he borrowed from a friend)
Now I will discuss some of the main points of emphasis derived from this campaign;
The campaign execution from a Marketing standpoint
As a marketer I must say the premise (or “Big Idea”) of the campaign is very strong, the humor is effective, the relevance of the communication to the target audience is spot on and the choice of celebrity endorsers is also perfect.
However that being said Vodafone made two bad decisions here;
Ad Screenshot via A.M Sadek
The comparison between the Muslim “Looney Toon” & the Western “Geniuses” emphasized in the ad— had they stopped at making fun of the Muslim scientist it would have been less reprehensible leading us to the second point…
Had for example an Egyptian company like Rashidi El Mizan created such a campaign the backlash would have been less and understandably so; the fact the a WESTERN firm made fun of a MUSLIM scientist and then COMPARED him unfavorably to a much more acclaimed WESTERN scientist is the main flaw of the execution and why the Vodafone marketing team should have never approved the concept in the first place no matter how much it made them laugh.
Also note that the Egyptian Vodafone marketing team are graduates of American universities and products of British & American schooling systems (like the majority of the affluent class of Egyptians) and likely had no idea who Abbas Ibn Firnas was in the first place which is a reflection on the current state of our education system more than it is a reflection on them.
Online + Offline Integration
A glaring flaw in the majority of companies in Egypt (partially due to the fact that Social Media is relatively new here) is the fact that absolutely no integration occurs across touch points.
Marketing 101; All touch points must be connected; call center employees and store managers must be aware of everything going on throughout touch points and given courses on how to handle such concerns effectively leading us to…….
Crisis Management
Social media agencies have been feeding brand managers cool videos of how awesome social media is yet haven’t been transparent in sharing any of the pitfalls. Any brand that is using social media needs to have a crisis management plan of action in place detailing how different situations will be handled BEFORE they occur, Vodafone obviously didn’t have one which is why the resorted to the biggest no-no in the book; deleting user comments.
Furthermore as per the above point the crisis management scenarios must be integrated with offline touch points as well.
The power of social media in Egypt & true influence
This marks the first time in Egypt that a brand feels the wrath of social media and surely won’t be the last, what active social media users need to keep in mind is that true influence is that which affects offline touch points; In Egypt a youtube video will reach thousands, a TV spot will reach millions, the cause will truly be put to rest once Vodafone removes the TV spots.
The role of brands in society
Is it the role of Vodafone to educate the audience? Definitely not however multinational firms need to have a local outlook on the market they are dealing with and act accordingly.
In conclusion when using social media brands need to tread carefully with a concise plan of action in place; til next time… with a Shisha in hand 
Mostafa Mourad
November 20, 2010Amazing article!
In my first video I intended to make Vodafone listen to their customers as they never responded to the so many tweets sent before the video. Plus I wanted them to know that they have to act as we are not just making a noise, we were planning to make a mass-conversion campaign to other providers and record it on a video to be uploaded on youtube as well in case they continued to ignore our comments. My intention was to make them realize that they have to respond without me crossing the line or cursing. Had I dealt with the matter differently and said anything in the video that would be considered an insult we would have lost our case and vodafone would have gone on the defensive. Also I want to mention here that Vodafone top management knew about our plan for a mass-conversion video through someone I know. I think that both the effect of the video and their understanding of the impact of the mass-conversion video if done, made them finally feel the heat and respond.
The main reason why the video had such an impact is because people prefer to see and listen rather than read.
As for the second video I had three aims:
1- Because I made a video criticizing the campaign and ending my USB subscription with the company, I had to also thank them the same way when they responded and published an apology and stopped the AD online. This way I am encouraging companies to respond to the social media campaigns because they know they will be thanked when they take a good stand.
2- In Egypt people don’t know how to object to something or say their opinion in a positive way. I know that a lot of people from now on will follow the idea of recording a video and uploading it online to object to something. This is why I stressed in my second video on the fact that we have to send our message or object politely without insulting or cursing. Otherwise the social media will turn into a negative instead of a positive tool in our hands.
3- Another main aim for our campaign was not only to make Vodafone stop the Ad. but also to make people know who is Abbas Ibn Fernas, who was a great scientists. He has many contributions in a lot fields not only in the aviation field. And his flying experiment took him 20 years of studying before he actually flew and he did not die in the experiment as people think. So we took advantage of Vodafone’s mistake to educate people and make them respect the great scientist.
Finally I know that it was not their intention to humiliate or make fun of Abbas Ibn fernas, they just used the widely known story about him which is not right. This is a mistake from Vodafone’s side because they had to study the person they are talking about well first before mentioning anything about him in the Ad. Especially if he is a great scientist who is admired worldwide.