We prioritized markets based on telecom user-base and concentration of high value customers.

If the approach worked, we could then scale it up for other markets.

Mumbai was selected as the ground zero of our rebuild. With a population double that of Belgium,

Mumbai is one of the metros with highest telecom user base. It also has a high concentration

of high value customers, and as the financial and media capital of India, is a perception driver for India.

However, negative perception of Vi’s network was most acute in Mumbai and people were lapsing out in droves. Even Unlimited Data Recharges, our core business metric, was completely flat in the two months leading to our campaign.

This informed our chain of objectives:

TURNAROUND BUSINESS IN MUMBAI AS REFLECTED IN UNLIMITED DATA RECHARGES

BY

REDUCING CHURN

BY

REBUILDING BRAND CONSIDERATION AMONGST USERS

BY

REPAIRING PERCEPTION OF Vi’s NETWORK QUALITY IN MUMBAI

Much before Uber Eats, existed the Dabbawallas - a 134-year-old, Six-Sigma-rated (success rate of 99.9%) network of tiffin-carriers who traverse the vast, intricate cobweb of Mumbai to deliver dabbas (tiffin-boxes) every day. In doing so, they reach places that even our engineers can’t reach.

Vi, a modern telecom network partnered with the historic dabbawala network and actually paid them to torture-test our network strength.

This was our creative idea: Human network testing telecom network.

In an industry obsessed with hi-tech solutions, our low-tech idea helped gather invaluable data and solve our business problem.

Audience: Existing skeptical customers in Mumbai as well as customers of other telecom networks who were struggling with network strength.

Unfortunately, Mumbai is a vast cobweb - it would be humanly impossible for the engineers

to reach and test all network spots.

3rd-party network-rating agencies like OOKLA and Open Signal, or IG-wielding influencers

could have helped, but their over-use by our industry had stripped them of all credibility.

People relied upon friends, family and social acquaintances to inquire about good network.

Our insight: People don’t trust claims by paid-for 3rd-party experts or IG-wielding influencers –

they trust actual network experience of others.

But we couldn’t rely on the experience of just anyone – it had to be someone

who Mumbaikars believed in.

The disruptive strategy: Get Mumbai's much-loved, Six-Sigma-rated, 134-year-old human network – the Dabbawallas, to test our network and restore our reputation.

We brought this to life over 2 phases:

Phase 1: Restoring the network in Mumbai

Vi’s network engineering team gave handsets to the Dabbawallas to highlight strong and weak network spots in real time, while delivering their dabbas. Our engineers in the war room collected this data and started strengthening the areas with poor network.

This was carried out across 550 locations, spread over 23 districts.

Phase 2: Restoring reputation

Once the network experience had been restored, we amplified the experience of the Dabbawallas, to reboot our perception.

The on-ground activity was covered and released as a video on YouTube and other social networks. While the activity was on, we placed print ads and billboards to get the city excited.

Our strategy impacted perception to brand to business:

REPAIRED PERCEPTION OF Vi’s NETWORK QUALITY IN MUMBAI

500 Basis-point INCREASE IN NETWORK PERCEPTION – ‘Provides a fast and reliable network’ post-campaign

TO REBUILD BRAND CONSIDERATION AMONGST USERS

857 Basis-point INCREASE IN CONSIDERATION post-campaign.

TO REDUCE CHURN

~9.58% reduction in absolute churn in the quarter post-campaign.

The positivity spread, and we saw a 30% spike in new customer acquisitions in the quarter post-campaign.

TO TURNAROUND BUSINESS, AS REFLECTED IN:

•4.72 million incremental unlimited-data-recharges in the 2 months post-campaign.

For context, that’s more than double the population of Paris.

•1.85 million incremental first-time recharges by new users in the 2 months post-campaign

With Vi’s Average Revenue Per User at 1.72 USD, the total incremental recharges we drove roughly equates to 11 Mn USD worth of revenue.

Our strategy had a halo-effect on our overall brand, improving our overall positive social sentiment by 32%.