We created our own drama told entirely on WhatsApp in collaboration with one South Africa's top TV drama writers. The audience followed the fictional Langa family from Soweto's WhatsApp group. Messages were delivered (via broadcast lists) to the audience in real-time as if the family were having a genuine conversation in texts, emojis, images, voice notes and videos.

The story showed how tradition and modern life clashed as the family's relationships were tested by lack of money to bury their father according to all of their wishes. Many of themes explored would be very familiar to South Africa's emerging middle-class consumers such as: the financial burden falling on younger generations; the importance of traditional values and the differences between generations.

A supporting campaign ran across social media, radio and OOH to build an audience.

The Uk’Shona Kwelanga drama itself played out on WhatsApp, and was supported by an multi-channel media strategy which used radio stations, billboards, PR, and social media to drive sign ups.

Once signed up, our audiences received messages throughout the day (each day was seen as an "episode") as our characters interacted and the funeral drama played out. Using WhatsApp proved technically challenging - the experience was achieved by using broadcast lists to create a stream of content that couldn’t be interrupted by user comments. Community managers responded to all audience comments and queries (which were only visible to them not the wider audience).

The campaign ran over six weeks. Users received content as if it was being sent from the characters in real-time over seven days. Multiple broadcast lists were set-up to allow users to sign up at any point over the campaign period and receive the full story.

In terms of engagement, the objective of 10 000 people signing up for the drama was exceeded by 367%, with 46 700 sign ups. 93% of registrations completed the entire drama - a drama that incorporated 20 minutes of content in a world where 15 seconds is considered an achievement - resulting in 603 days worth of total consumed content. The campaign also generated R11 632 718 worth of earned media (+165% on target) with an 87% ROI.

In terms of business results, Sanlam sold 21 400 new funeral plans, 320% over the campaign target of 5 100 new policies - during campaign period. Sanlam’s share of the funeral market grew by 3% vs industry leaders such as Old Mutual and Liberty who both lost market share.

All this was achieved on a media budget of R11.3m million which represented 1% of the category spend between April and November 2017.