#MobExAwards highlight: giga! urges consumers to #ditchyourex and gains subscriber love

The brand giga! was created to address a major consumer pain point in the telco sector by providing a better, simpler and more intuitive experience that is customer-centric with no hidden cost. The main reason it was brought to life was to help consumers overcome the fear and uncertainty of porting. It was done to enable customers to have a better understanding of the matter and lead customers through a simple in-app guided steps to grow giga’s subscriber base.

This year giga! walked away with silver award for MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Mobex Awards for Best Mobile Growth Strategy / Campaign and two bronzes in Best Insight-Driven Mobile Campaign and Best Use of Mobile – Government, Utility & Services.

Challenge

giga! saw intensified competition in the Singapore market with new players joining the ranks of MVNO operators in Singapore. The competition is  a cluttered one with more than 10 major players serving a price sensitive population of 5.7million in Singapore and with a mobile penetration rate of 152%

Moreover, there are now plenty of data-hungry digitally savvy customers who are driven by high smartphone penetration, wanting value plans without being tied to a mobile contract laden with terms andconditions.

Singaporean consumers demand for high-quality, reliable, seamless online experience and the need for safe and secure transactions. Moreover, they want the product customised and mobile-optimised with the shift towards a “mobile first” mentality. Consumers were also looking for convenient payment methods, with 76% of Singaporeans choosing Payment by tapping their credit card or EFTPOS card and quick responsive responses to feedback and queries.

Strategy

To be the most customer-centric digital telco in an app, which not only listened to feedback and allowed critique of our brand to be aired in public, but also involved customers and incorporated their feedback in its creation and design process, it allowed giga! to create a product and user journey that customers truly wanted and enjoyed using.

#gigaHuddles was created to provide an open and intimate setting for giga! to obtain honest feedback from users to finetune its product features, create a sleeker more intuitive app user interface (UI), user experience (UX) and even improved on its app loading time. Common consumer pain points across the industry were quickly identified and giga! offerings were conceived based on the demands of consumers such as contract free plans with free Caller ID, free incoming local calls and free incoming local SMS comes without any hidden fees or excess charges.

To optimise customer experience, giga!’s fully digital, easy, seamless experience from sign up, ease of porting to payment and sim card delivery across website and app meant that consumers do not need to spend hours queuing at a telco store waiting to be served.  In addition, consumers never have to waste what they paid for as giga’s unbiased unique data rollover feature on all plans enables customers to roll over unused data from their giga! plan. Its real-time tracking of local, roaming data usage in-app and personalisation features addresses the rigidity and constrain telcos imposed on their customers. The lack of customer support in the industry was addressed by its omni channel support powered by AI chatbot GINO 24/7 and live chats.

#DitchYourEx campaign was launched which aims to bring across how giga!’s product features and customer experience removes common pain points consumers face with their telcos, through relatable relationship issues faced by encapsulating this in a subtle and tongue-in-cheek campaign and relating this it to similar issues faced in human relationships. The campaign personifies it as an ex-relationship where consumers reflect with clarity why they have decided to call it off.

The campaign was launched across digital and traditional media with the use of StarHub’s SmartHub analytics enabling giga! to gather geolocation insights with feature rich grids for granular analysis which helped giga! select the optimal media mix across digital and traditional media that forms a holistic ecosystem, serving different objectives at different stages of the marketing lifecycle. Through this analytics, digital content and advertising completed the offline-to-online cycle enabling the tracking of not only the campaign success but effectiveness of media channels.

Recognising that switching a telco or network requires a certain level of commitment and ultimately, customers want to be sure of the new service they are signing up for, giga! introduced a trial period so that customers can make an informed decision before they port in by offering discounts off their first month bill. The campaign was a success driving 2.5 times quarter on quarter subscriber growth, gaining the highest industry NPS scores.

Execution

A series of customer research and engagements were conducted, leading to the creation of giga!’s online journey and product construct. JAM sessions were formed with digitally savvy and casual users. Each group was asked to design their own version of their ideal telco service.

First round of User Advocate test (UAT) was carried out thru UX army with Asian-focused test group where respondents were exposed to the journeys within the giga! app. With the results, giga! turned evidence-based User Experience into customer journey designs in the app.

The second round of UAT was conducted involved a different test group. A Navigational Study and AB testing on the design elements, language and understanding of call to action buttons was conducted.  giga! then teamed up with StarHub’s analytic team and used the SmartHub Profiling engine to gain App specific usage insights from a large sample mobile postpaid base.

Third round of UAT conducted involved a final round of preference testing to compare the preferred app designs across various user segments.

For engagement, giga! stayed connected with its customers not just through digital channels and WhatsApp chat groups, but also by meeting them in person, to solicit direct feedback of their app experience. These gigaHuddles, allowed giga! to engage with a group of giga! SuperUsers to help the brand put some “Art” into the “Science” as both parties co-created product features and user journeys.

To ensure that the campaign get the most reach across all channels and with the least overlaps in audiences, giga! worked with StarHub’s SmartHub analytics team to gather geolocation insights to help giga! determine the exact locations where its target audiences are commuting daily. While the media agency selected the optimal mix of media across both digital and traditional media. Engaging and authentic message for its target audience were crafted. Eye-catching visuals and clear USP articulation were executed with giga!’s signature pink and blue brand colours, showcased pan-island on large-format mediums like buses and train stations.

Digital content with the DitchYourEx video completed the offline-to-online cycle that enables giga! to track its campaign success. To determine channel effectiveness and conversions, unique promotional codes were included to determine how consumers consumed and responded to its advertising.

Results

The Ditch Your Ex campaign drove 2.5 times subscriber growth for giga!, this was clearly seen through the redemption of promotion codes from the offline channels and highly optimised Cost-per-Acquisition when driving subscription for app downloads.

A Net Promoter Score of +39 in May 2020 was achieved and it was mainly attributed to the emphasis giga! placed on crafting the most seamless journey and customer experience.

giga! has the highest Seedly Rating reviews among all Telco in Singapore, hitting a 4.6 ratings, achieving the Best Telco Mobile App and Best Ease of Porting for telcos. (Seedly ratings, 2020).

With a best Google Playstore ratings of 4.9 and Appstore ratings of 4.6 for the giga! app, 70% of giga! subscribers are Port-in customers from other telcos who Ditched their Ex to join the giga!, because of the easy and seamless process. Being customer-first has helped to create brand trust where giga!’s customers are willing to spread the word to promote its brand to their friends and family. Thereby helping giga! to achieve 2.5 times subscriber growth in 2019.