A.  Background

The Fair & Lovely scholarships are awarded annually  to deserving young girls who intend to pursue higher education in India leading to Graduation, Post-Graduation and PhD. Awarded by the Fair & Lovely Foundation, the Rs 100,000 )US $ 2500) scholarship is meant for women ‘with an aptitude and ambition to achieve their goals’. This Scholarship was instituted  5 years ago with the objective of enabling economic empowerment to Indian women. In India, low-income families, are unable to provide opportunities for education due to resource constraints. The support provided by Fair & Lovely Foundation has helped girls avail opportunities of higher education and acquire skills in appropriate professions thereby carving a path for their future.

 Over 300 women across India have been awarded scholarships through this programme. The scholarship accomplishes those dreams which would have remained unfulfilled, talents that would have remained untapped and opinions that would have gone unnoticed. The Fair & Lovely Foundation is an initiative of Hindustan Unilever Limited. It seeks economic empowerment of the Indian women- “Your destiny is not just where you are, it is just one step away."

B. Communication Goals

To provide visibility and synergy to the Fair & Lovely Campaign - Reliance Communications’ R World platform was thought to be the best medium for advertising the Scholarship programme for women as it gives a high reach in the desired target group

The Reliance Mobile network covers 10,000 towns and 300,000 villages.

The Foundation specifically targets women who are from the low-income groups in the rural and urban India.

This being a CSR activity the objective was to enable lead generation of potential women candidates with a cost effective campaign  as Hindustan Unilever Ltd did not include the traditional media – TV & Print in its plan. To break free from the clutter of the traditional medium and be the first brand under the Hindustan Unliver Limited umbrella to explore the mobile platform which has never been used by the company in India before.

Induce call for action by enticing the user to fill in personal important details after sharing   the Scholarship and Fair & Lovely Foundation information which then could be followed upon to shortlist the applications received.

 C. Media Solution & Execution

Considering the prevailing situation in terms of media fit and the campaign objective, the Reliance CDMA network of handsets had a unique platform, R World which has the capability of featuring substantial amount content in terms of text, visual and audio, which made the platform highly interactive.

 
With an active subscriber base of over 35 million, of which 20 million hand- sets support the R world application, this medium also gives a high reach in the desired TG. Over 11 million unique users visit the Reliance Mobile World every month. The duration of the campaign was 1 and half moths.

 
1. Banner Advertising: Fair & Lovely Scholarship clickable banner on top of the screen on the Main Menu of the Reliance Mobile World in WAP handsets.

 The Banner was conceived to build rapid awareness about the Fair & Lovely Foundation and scholarship program.

Microsite: The banner was also linked to the microsite which captured the essence of the program in brief and allowed the interested users to apply then and there.

Millions of Impressions )more than 2 million impressions) have been recorded on the Fair & Lovely Foundation Banner Ad.

The Banners were rotated / refreshed at regular intervals to maintain saliency & ensure that it does not become a blind spot.

 
2. Fair & Lovely Scholarship Zone: Lead Generation Zone for the fair & Lovely Scholarships

Aspiring women could apply for this scholarship through Reliance Mobile Phones’ R World for the first time. Short-listed applicants were to be contacted by Fair & Lovely Foundation.

Potential students can send their entries through Reliance Mobile World on R World>Hot N New>>Schlrshp Zn 

Circles targeted to tap maximum number of applications – UP, AP, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh  &Chhatisgarh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka.

Candidates could fill-in important information such as name, age, area of interest to apply through the Reliance Mobile World and apply instantaneously for the scholarship.

The zone also has detailed information about the Scholarship program and   picture of one of the previous scholarship winner – Amrita Singh which will inspire others to apply.

More than 30,000 students have applied on the Reliance Mobile World till date, filling in all 4 inputs required for a successful entry.

 
3. SMS Blast: SMS has been sent to all subscribers in the select circles for driving traffic to the Scholarship Zone, encouraging students to apply.

 
4. IVR: The scholarship Program has also been promoted through the IVR in select circles. The message relayed gave information about the program and directed the subscribers to apply through the Reliance Mobile World.

 
5.  Short Code: Subscribers can also apply by responding through the Short Code 51234 to Reliance Communications.

 
6. Reliance Mobile World Website: Campaign details have also been uploaded on the Reliance Mobile World website.

D. What Makes the Idea a Winner & Results

A holistic approach was taken and the campaign included all the elements of mobile marketing- SMS Blast, SMS Shortcode, IVR besides the Banner, Microsite and the Lead Capturing Zone. We received an overwhelming response during 1 and half moths that the campaign was on.

E. The Campaign Results