Bespoke mobile games for Sunlight Washing Smartfoam 2in1 powder were created, customized to educate players on the product; incentivise desired behaviors; educate the players on water saving tips; inspire customer loyalty. Virtual buckets of water saved while playing the game translated into fresh water being donated to Cape Town. The text based USSD game was made accessible to these millions of consumers, using USSD technology to create games that do not require a smart phone or data. The Sunlight Smart Water USSD Game was made available to the players in their language of choice: English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, and Sotho. A smart game version of the game was also developed to reach the smart phone, tablet and desktop users with a graphical and animated WebView-based version of the USSD game. The smart game was only available in English. Live weather reports was made available as part of water saving tips.

The campaign: 23 Nov 2017 - 8 January 2018.

More than 60% of South Africans still use feature phones and have no access to mobile gaming apps. The game was made accessible to these millions of consumers, using USSD technology to create games that do not require a smart phone or data. USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a Global System for Mobile(GSM) communication technology that is used to send text between a mobile phone and an application program in the network. USSD is still widely used in countries where smartphone penetration remains low. An average of 27.6 million unique users every month visit South Africa’s 2 largest operator’s USSD star dial menus. The USSD games are free-to-play, inter-active, text-based games. No costs are incurred by subscribers, no data needed, and no app downloads involved. USSD sponsored gaming is available to users of all types of mobile phones, from basic, through feature to smart phones. In addition to the USSD, a smart game version of the game was also developed to reach the smart phone, tablet and desktop users with a graphical and animated WebView-based version of the USSD game. The smart game was only available in English.

425 551 players started the game, and 328 385 players finished the game. 77% of players that started the game, completed it. The average engagement time with the Sunlight brand was 10 minutes per player, educating and interacting with the player about the Sunlight brand. This was the longest single media engagement and interaction time with the Sunlight brand in history. Rich profile and product data were collected from the players and permission acquired from the players for future interaction from the brand. The different language options provided interesting insights into the market. 71 864 players regularly revisited the main menu to check on the live weather report after they have completed the game. The virtual water buckets collected in the game resulted in 120 000 liters of fresh water being doing donated to Cape Town in the drought stricken Western Cape.