Etisalat Lanka wins big at Effie Awards 2012

Etisalat Lanka won two Silvers Effie awards their 'Play' and 'Easy Loan' campaigns, while the 'Android', 'Northern SIM' and 'Web Patashala' campaigns each won a Bronze Effie award.

The Silver-winning 'Play' campaign was designed to interest youngers audiences in the market between the ages of 18 and 25.

Launched in May 2012, 'Play' introduced new pricing plans to customers. Communication was done via TV commercial, radio and other innovative engaging activities such as the 'Game Zone' and the 'Etisalat: Twitter Premier League 2012', a cricket tournament organised for Sri Lankan Twitter users.

Etisalat's 'Easy Loan' campaign, winner of a second Silver Effie award, launched a new service for prepaid users that gave them credit loan plans to select from when low on credit. Titled 'Mad Dash' and launched in June 2011, the campaign was communicated via TV, radio and outdoor advertising.

The bronze-winning revolutionary e-learning platform, Web Patashala, is an interactive e-learning tool in partnership with the State Trading Corporation (STC) and the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka. Launched in March 2012 to meet the education needs of parents, teachers and students all over the country, the campaign was conducted through mainstream advertising and 40 seminars that were held around Sri Lanka.

In addition to providing an education resource that aligned with the national curriculum and was accessible from anywhere in the country, Web Patashala also successfully changed the mindsets of people and exposed them to the power of mobile broadband connectivity.

Etisalat's 'Northern SIM' and 'Android' also won two Bronze Effies. 'Northern SIM' addressed the needs of the Northern Region by offering a SIM that operated in the language predominantly used in the Region, empowering people to communicate, and was launched in March 2012.

'Android' was launched in November 2011 to leverage the power of the Android platform to boost connectivity and increase broadband subscription, while providing exposure and marketing opportunities to local App Developers. The campaign succeeded in increasing data usage penetration among the Etisalat customer base from 1.5% to 35%.

Dumindra Ratnayaka, Chief Executive Officer/Director, Etisalat Lanka, said, "This has been an exciting year for Etisalat Lanka, having introduced many new innovations to the market, including DC HSPA+ technology. Beyond the success of each campaign, Etisalat Lanka has managed to empower more people with the power of communication and broadband technology while adding value to the communities we serve around the country with programmes like Web Patashala."

The Effie awards recognize the power of communication and the emphasis Etisalat places on interacting with their customers using various mediums, and the tremendous amount of research and planning that goes into making a product, service or campaign effective and making sure the intended impact is made.