Bihar and Jharkhand, with 130 million people are important growth markets for Unilever. But they are also most media dark states in India, with power cuts for 8 to 10 hours everyday. People here live in isolation of entertainment, communication and our brands. The challenge was to reach and create brand conversations amongst them.

The only electronic equipment that people here always kept turned on, were their rudimentary mobile phones.

So we got together mobile phone operators, content providers and our brands to transform their rudimentary phones into a medium of entertainment and engagement. We launched Kan Khajura Station – a 15 minute FREE entertainment channel on mobile. We gave a number which people could call to get 15 minutes of free entertainment and of course promotions from our brands.

Since traditional media barely existed here, we knew Word Of Mouth PR would be our biggest medium for creating awareness.

We launched and people took notice. Calls poured in.

We peaked at 200000 calls in just one day. Our service had captured their imagination and they had started having conversations.

8000 people everyday recommended Kan Khajura Station and because of a strong word of mouth our brands awareness went up by 40%.

The 24 million people who called and 8 million unique subscribers turned into the largest PR outfit we could have ever imagined.

Our target audience became our PR agency. As we gave content that was culturally relevant and shareable. And our brands emerged as conversations.

In an electricity deficient and hence entertainment starved area, we created a direct engagement platform, that could get our brands in touch with people, through entertainment.

The Kan Khajura Station is the first of its kind in India.

Each time people call in, they hear 15 minutes of free music, jokes, Bollywood news, and of course advertisements from our brands.

With an average of 100,000 calls each day, they were reaching out to us. And in turn our brands were successfully out to them.

Exceeding all expectations in just 6 months we got -

24 million calls and 8 million unique subscribers.

We peaked at 200000 calls in a single a day.

Around 13000 hours of content heard each day and a total of 140 million minutes heard till date.

70 million ad impressions till date.

Significant rise in spontaneous re-call- CloseUp-1300bps, Ponds 1400bps & Wheel- 1100bps.

We are the single largest Media channel in Bihar & Jharkhand today.

All this at a cost of under 4 US cents per person.

Bihar & Jharkhand called in and our brands reached out.