Vodafone ROAMATE

Today I´m very proud to publish the first of our five pitch presentation from the Miami Ad School Create Meaning project. Annamaria Zollet and Matei Curtasu came up with a very interesting approach to connect Vodafone to a new target audience, but see for yourself:

Each cultural journey we undertake brings with it a plethora of thrills. Stranded, lost in translation, away from your safety zone, culture shocks are unavoidable. However, every country has its own inspirational muses and astonishing history.

We thought of diminishing the first effects of alienation. Take a global brand like Vodafone for instance. All telecoms markets are overcrowded by cent-deals from small challenger brands, and reducing costs would be redundant for such a premium brand. So why not differentiate by offering something meaningful and helpful at the same time?

We looked at ourselves and realized that life as a foreign student is pretty tough. Months spent in hostels while looking for a place to live in, decrypting cyrillic symbols, figuring out currency rates, but most of all being away from friends & family.

That’s why we came up with ROAMATE, our vision of a first friend in a new country.

Targeted towards expat students, Vodafone ROAMATE is a prepaid welcome package containing an app, an interactive map, and other survival guide goodies to settle you easier in a new country.

The app lets you connect with new ROAMATE users by sharing contact information via Bluetooth. It also interacts with the map that has constantly-updated info, and it makes it easier to explore the city by booking restaurant tables, buying concerts tickets, etc.

A push notification gives you discounts based on your GPS location, and you can store the memories you collect (photos, videos, notes, friendships) on a memorytracker website. After your stage is finished, you can opt to make get a Vodafone contract upon your return to your home country, and you will get a physical version of the MemoryTracker book format.

This way, the user interacts with the brand, and it creates an experience that goes beyond the usual price deal.

Thanks for following.

Matei Curtasu (@mtcrts)

Annamaria Zollet (@annamariazollet)