Ooredoo Group inks 3-year partnership with Snap to bolster CX with AR tech

Ooredoo Group has joined forces with Snap over three years to use advanced AR tech to enhance its customer experience. According to Ooredoo, this partnership is the first-of-its-kind in the region and will see the two entities collaborate to build advanced AR experiences, including 5G-enabled AR experiences, for Ooredoo customers across its 10 operating companies, powered by Ooredoo’s network with its unparalleled speeds and bandwidth.

The Group will leverage Snap’s community platforms such as Snapchat, and its diversity of creator tools, to build on its commitment to technology, innovation and the digital elevation of arts and culture and enhance the experiences on offer to its customers. Many of these experiences will centre around key cultural and social moments. Both companies will work together on the upcoming major sporting event being held in Qatar in 2022, for which Ooredoo is a major network provider. Plans include blending the physical and digital world through AR to create engaging, shareable fan experiences for the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to descend upon the country.

Ooredoo Kuwait and Ooredoo Qatar have already initiated projects in collaboration with Snapchat, with roll-out expected in Q4 2021 and Q1 2022. As part of its collaboration with National Museum of Qatar, Ooredoo is also planning a range of innovative AR activations with Snap - leveraging the power of 5G mobile connectivity - to go live at on-site exhibits. According to Snap, 85% of its daily users in MENA interact with Lenses each day.

In February this year, Ooredoo Group's Indonesian operations, Indosat Ooredoo, expanded its partnership with Snap to drive innovation within the field of AR, while empowering creativity and engagement amongst IM3 Ooredoo users, Snapchatters, and brands. Together, both companies will launch several programmes to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds with AR, and bring communities and businesses closer together despite the pandemic. 

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulla Al Thani, deputy group CEO and CEO of Ooredoo Qatar, said the partnership will enable the company to develop innovative 5G services that will enrich its customers’ digital experiences and make them enjoy the internet even more. "We are very excited about what our future together holds and can't wait to roll out the coolest activities across our markets," he added.

Nana Murugesan, MD, international markets at Snap said the company believes that AR ultimately adds both entertainment as well as utility to people’s lives, and the company is pushing the boundaries on both of these fronts by working with partners such as Ooredoo.

"We have seen communities in the region truly embrace AR today, especially around events and places. As that happens, one of our priorities is making AR more accessible to individuals and businesses, which will be expanded through this strategic partnership with Ooredoo across multiple countries," she added. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Ooredoo Group for additional information.

Earlier this week, Snap hired Anne Laurenson as the first MD of global carrier partnerships. She joined from Google and will be the first Snap executive to lead a global team, including the Americas, from outside the US. Laurenson will be based in Paris, reporting to Murugesan. She will be responsible for Snap's carrier partnerships strategy across the US and Latin America; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and the Asia Pacific regions. Snap’s carrier partnerships strategy is to build and strengthen relationships with telecom carriers to create mutual business value and enable people all over the world to use Snapchat and benefit from the potential of AR.

Separately, Indosat Ooredoo recently tied up with Google Cloud to accelerate digital transformation across consumer and enterprise segments in Indonesia. As part of the partnership, both parties will digitally transform by creating a marketplace of tailored software-as-a-service offerings with a goal of fully digitising SMBs from the day they register their businesses and at every stage of their business journeys.

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Photo courtesy: 123RF

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