#MobExAwards 2021 highlight: giga!’s customer ‘surprise’ proves a hit

It may come as no surprise that with the significant increase in digital adoption, there are more telecommunications companies emerging and competing in this space. Giga! is no exception. 

However, it has been hard for brands to keep up with how fickle-minded consumers can be, especially when it comes down to which company has the best bargain or value for money. 

Thus, giga! came up with #gigaSurprise, which impressed the judges and saw it clinch the silver award for Best Use of in-App Advertising at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s MobEx Awards 2021.

Challenge 

The telecommunications industry is known to be fast and furious, especially now with new players joining the ranks of the mobile virtual network operators in Singapore. According to giga!, the scene is now cluttered with more than 10 major players serving a price-sensitive population of 5.7 million in Singapore, and with a mobile penetration rate of more than 150%.

Every week, telcos are implementing low prices to attract consumers in an attempt to retain them. Next is keeping up with the evolving consumer demands. In Singapore, consumers are data-hungry individuals who are driven by high smartphone penetration. In fact, these consumers are looking for value mobile plans without being tied down to a mobile contract laden with terms and conditions. 

They are also looking for high quality, reliable, secure and seamless online experiences. More consumers are also embracing digital, as they look for convenient payment methods other than tapping a credit card. 

With these challenges in mind, giga! saw the opportunity to grow its subscriber base and meet the needs of today’s consumers. 

Strategy 

Giga!’s approach to tackling these challenges was to put the customer experience at the forefront of every campaign. This is present across all aspects of giga!’s business. Existing customers were offered the #gigaBirthdaySurprise with unlimited data, minutes and SMS on their birthdays, encouraging them to recommend this service to friends and families. 

Banking on word-of-mouth as the best way to retain customers, giga! utilised fully organic channels and spent zero dollars on marketing. 

Its focus was to be the most customer-centric digital telco in an app – one that not only listened to customers’ feedback, but also allowed transparent criticism of the brand to be aired in public. 

From there, giga! uses the feedback received from consumers in its creation and design process. With this approach, it allowed giga! to openly address problem areas, creating a product and user journey that customers truly wanted and enjoyed using. 

The message of bringing customers the best mobile service in an app was carried through word-of-mouth and viral marketing. It was delivered through social and media touch-points such as #gigaHuddles, a platform that enabled consumers an open and intimate setting to provide feedback for the company. 

When the pandemic hit, this platform proved to be useful as it provided insights where customers were open to being pushed in-app campaign advertising as long as it was targeted, relevant and beneficial.

Another actionable insight the platform provided the company was the customer’s urge to visit the app to claim exclusive and targeted offers. With this knowledge, giga! was able to fine-tune its product features, creating a sleeker and more intuitive app user interface, user experience, and improved app loading times. 

Launched with the aim of engaging customers and rewarding them with monthly rewards, giga! ensured the campaign was aligned to its brand core value that existing customers would always get the best deals. 

Redemption of the #gigaSurprise was triggered by various organic touch-points with zero marketing spend. These included social channels, emails, push notifications and in-app messages for redemption. Instead of stopping at redemptions, giga! continued the journey to drive customers to leave an honest review on Google Reviews. 

Execution 

Conducting a series of customer research and engagements, giga! created its online journey and product construct. There were five steps to this approach. 

1. JAM sessions, both online and offline, were formed with digitally savvy and casual users. Each group was asked to design their own version of their ideal telco service.

2. The first round of user advocate tests (UAT) was carried out on an Asian-focused test group where respondents were exposed to the journeys within the giga! app. 

3. A second round of UAT involving a different test group was conducted. This time, giga! conducted a navigational study and AB testing on the design elements, language and understanding of the call-to-action buttons

4. Giga! teamed up with StarHub’s analytics team and used the smart hub profiling engine to gain app-specific usage insights from a large sample of it mobile postpaid base.

5. The third round of UAT was conducted. It involved a final round of preference testing to compare the preferred app designs across various user segments.

Apart from research, giga! also stayed connected with its customers to solicit feedback on the app experience. Through the #gigaHuddles, giga! was able to engage with its customers to incorporate art and science as it co-created product features and user journeys. 

Results 

Through this campaign, giga! managed to give its customers a 100% digital experience. The percentage of friend referrals also increased, and there was a low need for support as issues were mainly resolved via self-help portals. 

The month-on-month growth of monthly active users on the mobile app has also increased. In fact, there were more than 70% returning customers and more than 20% new users every month. Additionally, giga! received a rating of 4.8 stars, with more than 2,500 customer reviews.