Insight
Being an expat filled city, Dubai ‘s high population turnover also means that people were less likely to be loyal towards a telecom brand – a quality that takes time to breed – which is usually, and in other markets, one of the hardest categories to persuade people to switch to from one brand to another. But on the other hand, this also meant that most people in Dubai are highly receptive to telecom offers, and more likely to switch than their global counterparts.
With airport media being as expensive as it is, it was evident that OMD MENA needed to explore other communication avenues. While setting off to figure out what the best alternative communication channel(s) would be, the agency unearthed 2 interesting research findings:
1) A poll that they had conducted earlier of inbound travelers found that getting online was one of the first things that travelers do when getting off the plane, walking to the terminal, and waiting in line – second to only calling a loved one
2) People were more receptive to internet bundle ads - when on the internet. This was based on OMD MENA's previous performance media data.
These 2 findings led the agency to believe that their communication channel had to shift from expensive outdoor to relatively cheaper online media.
Strategy
While reaching travelers via the Internet made absolute sense, OMD MENA still ran into the same challenge of airport media of having to find a way to reach their target efficiently. Using GPS technology through a targeting capability called geo-fencing, they were able to serve their ads in the Dubai airport only, bringing efficiency back on the table.
Execution
OMD MENA weren’t satisfied with just being able to target the right people in the right place. In order to take their targeting capabilities even further, they studied real-time mobile data to identify the type of people who come to the UAE: the countries they come from (roaming charge cost), the devices that they carry (package cost), the device language (to use relevant language) and even the social media activities (to identify location). The agency coupled this with data from the airports and later from campaign performance to also identify the reasons that brought these people to the UAE (leisure or business packages). The end result was the creation of hundreds of mini segment profiles.
Consequently, OMD MENA set up a different messaging for each of the segments and used data-driven dynamic creative to serve them their messaging. Using dynamic creative allowed the agency to target individuals using creative communication tailored to their behavior, interest, and browsing habits. A 40 year old father of 2 wanting to get back home to his kids would see an ad telling him he can connect more often with his family more often with du’s Business Roaming Pack. A 25 year old junior executive would see an ad telling her that she didn’t have to be disconnected from her friends just because she was away on business.
To make sure they were leaving no stone unturned, OMD MENA extended their operation to social media targeting based on social check-ins. This allowed them to target airport folk even when geo-fencing data was disabled.
Results
At the start of the campaign, OMD MENA knew that their price-driven communication would resonate well with the Dubai folk due to their high propensity to switch carriers. By the end of the campaign, and by replacing expensive executions with geo-fencing & a dynamic creative approach, the agency had reached almost 800,000 people.
The campaign spawned other long-lasting benefits as well, such as the creation of micro-clusters of data that the agency will undoubtedly use to fuel future campaigns.
Finally, the total cost of the campaign, $60,000, was a staggering 8x less than the cost of an average airport outdoor campaign.