About the campaign
Mother’s Day is coming up soon in most of Europe and so, in this week’s egtabite, we spotlight an award-winning campaign in Belgium that made sure everyone called their mom on this special day. With a little help from Siri and Google, Proximus encouraged listeners of a special radio spot to call their mother to spread some love on Mother’s Day.
Background
Belgians of course love their mothers but tend to forget to call them on Mother’s Day. While most brands limit themselves to commercial advertising around gift ideas, Proximus decided that the best gift you can give your mom is a loving phone call.
Proximus is the biggest telco brand in Belgium and, in such a competitive market, brand image is essential in order to stand out. Proximus’ brand promise, ‘Think Possible’, contributes to building a strong and emotional brand image. Proximus measures this image using a number of different criteria, two of which are extremely important: “Proximus helps me feel connected to those who matter to me” and “Proximus inspires me to be the best I can be”. Although most of this brand building is done through regular TV and digital video campaigns, the brand also recognises the importance of building an emotional connection with Belgians by being present during important occasions, such as Mother’s Day.
Creative idea
Mother’s Day is a day full of love and emotion. It is the day when we let our mothers know how important they are to us. The concept started with the idea of everyone calling ‘Mom’ in their phone’s contact list (‘Mama’ in Dutch or ‘Maman’ in French). This is what gave the creative agency, FamousGrey, their idea to call moms everywhere all at once by leveraging voice activation technology from Siri and Google Assistant. The concept brings Proximus’ brand promise ‘Think Possible’ to life in a beautifully simple yet extremely impactful and human way.
Strategy
Radio was chosen as the most powerful medium to bring this strategy to life. FamousGrey’s strategy at national level involved Belgians across the country on Mother’s Day 2022 and the day immediately after. Their media plan included all major radio stations across the two days, reaching more than 1.5 million people between 25 and 54 years old with an ‘opportunity to hear’ of 3.
Execution
FamousGrey executed this creative idea across two days with two versions of the spot: one version for Mother’s Day itself and one version for the day after.
On Mother’s Day, Proximus used a radio spot to remind all listeners that everyone has ‘Mom’ contact saved on their phone and that Proximus can help calling them. This was followed by a demonstration of the voice activation technology in the radio spot itself saying: “OK Google, call mom” or “Hey Siri, call mom” triggering the call on listeners’ phones in that very moment.
The radio spots with an integrated voice activation message were intensively tested and optimised for maximum performance (e.g. ensuring phones would call ‘mom’ and not another contact).
The following day, Proximus addressed all those who forgot about Mother’s Day and reminded them to call their mom, even if a day late. This was executed in the same way as the radio spot the day before.
The campaign was broadcast on all major radio stations, centred around moments when people are most likely to be driving, therefore reaching a large amount of the Belgian population.
Results
The Android and iOS voice activation technology does not allow for direct tracking. However, Proximus was able to analyse the increase in calls that corresponds exactly with the executed media plan. This analysis showed an increase of 276,000 calls over the Proximus network at the times when the commercials were broadcast.
Since Proximus has a 30% market share in mobile telephone operations in Belgium, FamousGrey made estimations based on extrapolating the Proximus figures. The campaign helped more than 900,000 people call their mom on Mother’s Day sooner than they would have otherwise.
A message integrated within a radio spot that activated a phone call directly to listeners’ mothers created a powerful collective human experience. This campaign consequently won “Best Innovation in Audio” at the 2023 Soniq Awards.