Metropolitan Republic

MTN is a telecoms company in South Africa. They had the idea of reaffirming their right-on values with their young and liberal target audience by declaring that they would contribute 10 Rand for every phone sold on National Women’s Day to POWA, a charity supportive of abused women.



Someone at the agency must have thought, “Hmmm. 10 Rand? That’s only 6.5DKK. Peanuts.”

Then that someone looked at the production budget. Around 82,000 DKK. Not large but equivalent to selling 12,500 phones. And he or she then thought, “Well why don’t we get all the ads done for as little as possible so we can pass on the savings to the people who need the money most.”

That became the idea. To do home-made ads while still billing the client for a more polished product.



So the TV commercial was made in Powerpoint with the music track recorded on a mobile phone (a Samsung, we hope) by the art director, who fancied himself as a musician.

The money saved on camera hire is now paying the healthcare costs of 22 young Mums. And the money saved on actors is paying to help educate 35 girls.



The same principle was extended to all the other marketing activity. Instead of posters on the street, volunteers wandered around with the message on cardboard sheets. The window displays of MTNs shops were similarly hand-drawn.

And everyone emerges from the campaign with a smile. POWA got a heck of a lot more money than they would have done otherwise; Samsung flogged plenty of phones; MTN got famous advertising and an undeserved reputation for being caring-sharing kinda guys (because, let’s face it, 10 Rand per phone is not generous); and the agency, The Jupiter Drawing Room, is winning awards.