In advertising media channels are everything. But in Bihar & Jharkhand, two states in India , people have no electricity for 8 to 10 hours a day. So people here live isolated from entertainment, communication and brands. But with 130 million people, these are important growth markets for Unilever.

Since existing media couldn’t reach them, we looked deeper and found that 54 million people here had rudimentary mobile phones. So our strategy was to find a way to transform these rudimentary phones into a platform that connect them with the world. And our brands.

We created a radio channel on these 54 million mobile phones, to entertain and hence engage with them. The Kan Khajura station- A free on demand radio channel that worked very simply.

All they had to do was give a missed call to a number, and we would call them back instantly, with 15 minutes of FREE entertainment, with music, jokes, news and promotions from our brands.

We targeted an ambitious 6-7 million calls in 6 months as this was a first ever for India. But people kept dialing in with a peak of 200,000 calls in a single day.

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.

In an electricity deficient and hence entertainment starved area, we created an activation 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 promotions from our brands.

By transforming their mobile phones into mass radio channel, we found a way to promote our brands with people who were otherwise inaccessible to the world and its brands.