Public Relation

‘What does freedom mean to you’? –

Sergeant Foday Sidi Kajue, police officer
attached at the Peace Keeping Operations Unit
of the Sierra Leone Police Force with the
contact number 076-60-65-77 is the lucky
winner from the Airtel promotion entitled the
„red sofa‟ which gives one Airtel subscriber the
opportunity to watch the Manchester United vs.
Arsenal football match which is scheduled to take place on the 13th of December, 2010 at Old
Trafford. (Photo: John Abu- kpawoh of the corporate unit Airtel congratulating the lucky police
winner, Sgt. Foday S.Kajue)

Phase 2 of the Airtel red sofa promotion focuses on getting consumer‟s point of view on “What
freedom means to them?” Consumers participated in the campaign and sent their responses
through SMS, Email and website. The Airtel Manchester United promotion is applicable to
Airtel Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Sierra Leone, DRC, Congo B, Madagascar, Gabon, Niger,
Chad, Burkina Faso and Seychelles.

All responses collected from Airtel subscribers through the various media platforms were
analyzed and a creative judgment was made to select the winners. Each Airtel operating country
selected 51 winners in which 50 winners will receive feel free T-shirts/Caps and 1 winner for the
Manchester United match or a trip to Dubai.

Sergeant Kajue‟s victory came as a result of his active participation in the „red sofa‟ feel free
promotion by filling in text messages in response to the question „what does freedom means to
you‟.
The Commercial Director Keith Tukei said that his is a historic promotion in the history of
mobile telecommunication in Sierra Leone and Airtel is planning to do more in offering its
subscribers the freedom to interact with world class football stars.

Airtel has given Sergeant Foday S. Kajue the opportunity to secure two economy class plane
tickets to fly to Manchester, United Kingdom, plus two standard tickets to watch the English
Premier League game between Manchester United and Arsenal to be at Old Trafford come
December 13th this year. All these would be backed up with two nights stay at Manchester in a
standard hotel with a double room plus an allowance of USD1000 for expenses towards meals.

In an interview with this writer, Sergeant Foday expressed appreciation to Airtel for granting him
the opportunity to visit England for the first time in life. He dedicated his fortune to the whole
police force in Sierra Leone as Airtel means freedom to all police officers to communicate and
interact with world class talents. He also encouraged Sierra Leoneans to have trust in the new
brand as Airtel has brought positive change in his life.

The Managing Director of Airtel Sierra Leone, RVS Bhurllar emphasized that; the Airtel brand
is affiliated to Manchester United Football Club in a bid to showcase the vibrant nature of the
new Airtel brand in the daily lives of Africans. „Airtel has more plans for the youthful population
in Sierra Leone and that is why, its subscribers are privileged to watch live football match at Old
Trafford in England‟, he further emphasized.

The red sofa was placed at different consumer touch points across all the 16 markets, raising
intrigue amongst the target group/masses. This was supported by Digital media
(www.letsfeelfree.com) & Television commercial.

Another Initiative

The largest mobile phone service provider in the country, Airtel officially recognized children
born on the 19th November 2010 in selected Government Hospitals in Freetown. This day was
chosen for the simple fact that Sierra Leoneans gained communication freedom on this day. This
Sierra Leone has been involved in this freedom through Airtel, a global brand now operating in
Sierra Leone. Zain re-branded to Bharti Airtel marking the second time the company has
changed its identity since being introduced to Sierra Leone 10 years ago.

Bharti Airtel, the fifth largest telecommunications provider in the world last week completed the
rebranding of its acquisition deal of Kuwait-based Zain‟s operations in 15 African countries and
Seychelles at a cost of $10.7 billion.

Fatmata Bello Jaye

The children born on this day in the following hospitals were automatically recognized as Airtel
Babies; Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH), Marie Stopes – Aberdeen Road & 34
Military Hospital, Wilberforce. A total of 7 lucky babies were identified, four from PCMH, nil
from 34 Military Hospital and three from Marie Stopes, of which there were 2 boys and 5 girls.

Madusu Kamara
For and on behalf of Airtel, and for being born on the 19th November 2010, Airtel Sierra Leone
donated cash prizes of Le.500, 000.00, phone with SIM card and Airtel T-shirt to the mothers of
each baby identified. This venture according to the Head of Corporate Affairs &
Communications, Mr. Kelvin Kellie was a unique step in a drive to live the brand of Airtel.
“These children are now born in the brand and will continue to be branded Airtel Babies in such
a way that their growth is going to be monitored” said Mr. Kelvin Kellie.

Advertisements

Advertisements play a major role in positioning the brand as well as the company among the
targeted product users. Innovation is always a part of advertisements and the advertising agencies
reach out for new ways to capture the prospective consumer‟s heart. Airtel and Vodafone
capitalized on innovative ideas and came up with new advertisements that pushed the brand
value to heights. The Zoozoos from Vodafone and the e-commerce ad from Airtel turned out
to be the best ads one has seen in 2009.

Ogilvy India was the head behind the Vodafone Zoozoos advertisements and the objective was
set to position Vodafone as an innovative leader in the mobile service segment category. The
promotion strategy was aimed to hit at massive levels by maximizing the targeted audience, and
IPL was the best option to go for. The advertising success is evident from the fact that the name
Zoozoos got coupled with the brand Vodafone and gathered more reception even than IPL.
Repetitive ads may bore the viewers and to avoid the hard effects, Ogilvy came up with new
Zoozoo ads everyday.

The egg faced Zoozoo creatures were heavily welcomed which demanded the advertising agency
to even go for merchandising to ensure that Zoozoos were available in other touch points too.
The Zoozoo TVCs marked a viewership of around 41 million people across India and the
Zoozoo interviews were broadcast through Youtube to more than 50000 viewers. And the result
of this innovative advertisement campaign, Vodafone became the most recognized brand
during IPL.
Airtel focused its advertisements on promoting the usage of mobile phones through its M-
commerce campaign. The Rediffusion Y&R who was conducting the campaigning designed the
ad objective to increase the number of mobile users. The ads were intended to increase the
awareness among mobile users regarding the ease and security of mobile commerce, especially
when it comes to banking operations. The pay anytime, anywhere advertisements featuring
celebrities could successfully convey the message to the audience. The Airtel advertisements
succeeded in increasing the number of customers opting for value added services and mobile
payments. The new age advertisement strategy from Vodafone and Airtel took product
promotion to a next level though innovation.

Bharati Airtel Welcomes Twitter-Tweet Twitter Via SMS Service

There are more reasons to cheers for Indian mobile users. Airtel with database of 110million
satisfied customers has tied up with twitter to introduce tweet via SMS service in India. India has
the third largest users database at twitter. Twitter via text messaging service has the huge
potential of capturing the big market in India with no other competitors featuring this service

Twitter is well known among the blogger, celebrities and other big companies. In case if you are
not aware of twitter, then twitter is a micro blogging social network tool that allows you to send
140 character message to your friends (called followers). Twitter was mainly available via web
and wap sites. Now the Indian users can text (tweet) direct message and receive message from
the twitter followers list. The service is live from October 15th 2009

Airtel Khushiyon Ki Diwali - Kareena & Saif

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries

across Asia and Africa, has introduced its pan India Khushiyon Ki Diwali offer to kick start
festive celebrations.

Now, customers buying new Airtel pre-paid and post-paid connections, across its 23 circles, will
not only get assured gifts (such as free SMSes, talk time and other value added services), but also
stand a chance to get other exciting gifts including Maruti Ritz cars, Hero Honda bikes, LCD
TVs, refrigerators and much more. And one special customer will also get the keys to a brand
new Toyota Corolla Altis!