The Challenge

With a view to spreading the following central messages;

• In the right hands, anything, no matter how small, has the potential to be more.
• And with over 165 years of knowledge and experience, Old Mutual can help you make the most of what you have, today,
• Old Mutual embarked on a combined campaign across all Old Mutual divisions, with the objective of driving call centre leads.
• The campaign needed to create impact within 3 very different markets, namely mass, affluent and corporate.

Why Radio?

Taking into consideration, the diversity in markets, and the depth of the message, the campaign needed to be executed on media platforms that could deliver maximum reach, while allowing for more than a generic message. Old Mutual appreciated the power of radio’s relationship with its listeners, and used radio to tap into meaningful engagement with consumers. The decision to flight across 14 different radio stations including African Language stations and go beyond the use of generic 30 second ads, was the perfect fit

Implementation

A multi-platform, non-traditional radio solution flighting simultaneously across 14 different radio stations was created. A combination of both national and regional stations were used, namely; Metro FM, Ukhozi FM, Umhlobo Wenene FM, Lesedi FM, Lotus FM, Kaya FM, 94.7 Highveld Stereo, Jacaranda 94.2, Talk Radio 702, KFM, 567 CapeTalk, East Coast Radio, Algoa FM and OFM.

The 2-week campaign was comprised of 2 distinct parts;

• Week 1, which was about engaging listeners and making the message tangible, saw 14 stations run with the same competition mechanic, delivered in a tailored manner that best suited each stations format. Listeners were invited to call in and share the goal that they were saving for. The most compelling and inspiring stories won cash to help them achieve that goal.
• Listeners entered via the station websites or by SMS (in the case of African Language Stations). This allowed Old Mutual to generate an option where listeners agreed to be contacted by its representatives and generated thousands of direct leads for client.
• Week 2 was about capitalising on the momentum created in the first week. It was about pushing a strong call-to-action and driving listeners to contact Old Mutual. This was done through endorsements / live reads by the same presenters who had hosted the competition the week before. They highlighted the best stories of the previous week and reinforced the benefit of starting to save and invest. In addition, a high frequency schedule of recorded generics carried the same call-to-action.

The Results

The stories were what made this campaign work, proving that radio is the most personal medium.

Everybody has a savings or investment goal and we immediately relate when we hear others talking about their goals. The beauty of this campaign is that the inspiring goals coming in kept the presenters interested and ensured that they didn’t rush to get through the execution as quickly as possible. As a result, thousands of qualified, direct leads from all sections of the market as well as a massive increase in volume of incoming SMS traffic to the Old Mutual call centre has been achieved.

Learnings

Old Mutual’s Thembeka Ngugi says; "Our objective was to engage South Africans from all walks of life around the importance of saving for your financial goals. It is a subject that can easily inspire and motivate. We understand that radio is the ideal medium with which to engage people on issues which really matter to them. By getting ordinary people to share their goals live on air we helped create compelling and meaningful content for the stations.  Once you’ve connected with listeners on an emotional and meaningful level they are far more likely to respond to your generic call-to-action message”.

RAB Commentary

It’s truly encouraging to see a client like Old Mutual who appreciates that consumers are people too. And that in order to entrench their brand philosophy and generate leads, they need to go beyond the 30” and engage the listener via compelling on-air content.

*Campaign was conceptualised and executed by Ultimate Media and Carat