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Innovative ad- 5 000 calls an hour. Shield also achieved a Redemption rates are at least 10 times
driven services 22% mobile coupon issuance rate, a level higher than with paper coupons.”
way ahead of a 3% coupon issuance rate
A focus on text ads has not stopped achieved, at best, by traditional media, says Mobile coupons first took hold in
Africa spawning highly innovative mobile Palmi. Mobile coupons replace conventional South Africa in 2012, thanks to the
SMS and USSD ad-driven services. paper-based discount coupons and can be efforts of WiGroup International’s founder
Among them is the ChiChi sponsored redeemed at point of sale. Bevan Ducasse. He realised effectiveness
call campaign devised by Justpalm.com. of mobile coupon campaigns were
The campaign set out to capitalise on an So impressed was Unilever with hampered by the absence of their
all-too-frequent problem faced by African ChiChi that it took the campaign to integration into retailers’ point-of-sale
consumers: a shortage of cash to buy Zimbabwe in partnership with Econet (POS) systems.
prepaid airtime. Wireless, Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile
service provider. Ducasse’s solution was wiPlatform.
ChiChi requires a consumer to enter a It was a world-first, enabling retailers to
unique USSD code on their phone and add Called Buddie Free Call, it was integrate any mobile coupon or payment
the mobile number of, say, a friend they preceded by an awareness drive in which app onto their POS system overnight
want to speak to. They immediately receive 50 000 Econet subscribers were informed at minimal cost. It has since been
an automated return call and, as a reward by text message of its impending launch. adopted by almost every major South
for listening to a 15-second advertisement, Response was huge. On the campaign’s African retailer. WiGroup is now bent on
are connected to their friend for one launch day it attracted 10 000 registered emulating wiPlatform’s success in West
minute, courtesy of the ad sponsor. users, a number that grew to 200 000 in Africa, where in 2015 it formed a joint
less than two weeks. venture with Interswitch, Nigeria’s largest
The campaign launched in late 2014 electronic payments processor.
and attracted support from a number of USSD and SMS can also be used to
big-name corporates, including Unilever’s great effect in pure coupon campaigns. “Mobile coupons went live in Nigeria in
Shield deodorant and Omo washing “Paper coupons are a hit or miss method,” October,” says Darko. “Shoprite [Africa’s
powder brands. says Michelle McEwan, MD of Gorilla largest retailer] is one of the first aboard.”
Creative Media. “With mobile coupons Ghana is set to follow. “We are in the
It was a runaway success. The Shield consumers request what they want. early stage of development in Ghana and
campaign alone attracted at its height
Issue 4 2016 strategicmarketingafrica 13
