To cushion Kenyans and especially the lower segment against the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Safaricom launched an initiative called ‘Bonga for Good’. The initiative encouraged high-value customers to donate their Bonga Points / loyalty points to assist those in need as a show of goodwill. This resulted in extra cash flow to buy food and essential services by enhancing the value of Bonga Points by 50per cent, from 20 cents to 30 cents.

In turn, creating a new alternative currency in a time where the market is both cash strapped and cannot exchange physical money.

BONGA FOR GOOD is a mobile service that offers an alternative currency by converting loyalty points (Bonga Points) into real money. Bonga points are collected every time you use a Safaricom service such as calling or sending an SMS. With millions of these points lying un-used in customers phones, Safaricom, the nation's largest Telco saw an opportunity to bring good. Built off the back of its mobile money network M-PESA, which lets users transact money using simple SMS messages, the service is accessible to over 18M subscribers providing a seamless way and user-friendly way to buy goods and services.

In the wake of the (worst)global economic downfall,the most affected were our blue-collar workers with informal jobs. Meet Kenya’s lower class. 10 Million Kenyans live below $2 a day. Cash strapped, the pandemic had robbed them of their lives and livelihood.

This is BONGA FOR GOOD. An alternate currency built off the back of Safaricom’s mobile money platform, M-Pesa. That turns the loyalty points you never USE Into REAL money, shared & accepted in REAL stores

With Bonga for Good, users could transact with their loyalty points enabling them to buy a host of relief items. Using a simple USSD code, Kenyans with EVEN the MOST basic of feature phones were given access to this depository of loyalty Points

To facilitate the donation and redemption of Bonga Points; we used a liquid and linked strategy designed to deliver not just share of voice but share of attention across our multi screened audience.

We started a rallying cry to capture the hearts and minds of Kenyans to the plight of those earning daily wages.

We deployed a multichannel strategy that captured the attention of both donors and recipients based around the media theme of enabling acts of kindness, one person at a time. We strategically tailored and targeted messaging to donors and recipients educating them and showing them what these points exactly meant in term of actual food/groceries by creating different scenarios using a screen led approach to drive maximum awareness and get people to donate and redeem points for essentials.

Using consumer insights and google location data, we then targeted consumers in proximity to their location

A whopping 1 billion Bonga Points REDEEMED in just 3 MONTHS 

That’s over 3.32 Million dollars worth of goods and services transacted & 1.72 Million dollars generated in revenue