The document summarizes MWEB's "Free the Web South Africa" social media campaign. The campaign began on March 1st, 2010 with Facebook ads promoting more affordable internet access. By March 15th, the fan page had grown to 10,000 fans who were eagerly awaiting the announcement. On March 17th, MWEB revealed themselves as the leaders of the movement and launched new low-cost broadband packages. The campaign was centered around engaging users on Facebook and gained over 16,000 fans and 300 Twitter followers within 72 hours. The campaign leveraged South African online culture and sparked conversation to build anticipation around more affordable internet access.

1. How MWEB
found an existing conversation,
added oil and mechanic then
launched into an
Ignited Community
and 5 Insights Learnt
by Eshaam Rabaney

2. Playing Back the Execution...
1st of March 2010,
“Free the Web South Africa” launches & starts
awareness via Facebook Ads.
The ad then calls for a change in high
bandwidth costs in SA and at the end entices
users to believe that “Something big is on the
horizon”.
“We have a plan and in a short time will be
able to reveal it to you.” was part of the
welcome message present on the fan page.
15th of March 2010,
Just 2 days before all is revealed, 10 000 fans
gathered in great anticipation.
17th of March 2010,
MWEB identifies themselves as the leaders of
the movement, and launches its brand new
Result...
low cost uncapped broadband packages to a
community of about 10 000 plus fans. ...and as a

3. After about 72 hours...
Approx.16 000+ fans
http://www.facebook.com/FreeTheWebSA
Almost 300+ followers
http://twitter.com/FreeTheWebSA
About 50 unique blog posts
http://afrigator.com/search/index/mweb

4. It was EMOTIONAL...

5. The “Free the Web” initiative was (and still is) a working idea. A
working idea that operated within a very distinct online culture;
the South African online culture and only its makeup would
understand the relevance of such an initiative.
MWEB then took that defining characteristic of the SA online
culture, fostered a story to deliver an experience then used time
to create a situation perfectly suited for their “coming out” and
product launch.

6. The Mechanic:
Centred and focused around
a Facebook Page.
Made effective use of in-
house Facebook functions
like notes and video. THERE
WAS NO RUSH TO A BLOG OR
YOUTUBE.
Twitter took a “secondary”
priority as clever in-house
usage of Facebook became
favourable for
engagement. Hedstrom – Sweden // Flickr
It was SIMPLE, the campaign activity was housed in one
main spot, which then established a “head quarters”
and possibly helped gain further traction.

7. And to make sure it all ran smoothly
Anticipation
By playing on the dream of a
better internet in South Africa,
left users in anticipation of this
realisation
Participation
By making them feel a part of
something big with a simple call
to action asking for support
from participants friends and
family.
Ignition
Through content which sparked
~Gabriel of Flickr
conversation and relevance.

8. So when
the cleverly
inserted public
countdown timer
ran down, the order
was then issued to drop and
just like that...10 thousand+
participants became instantaneously
aware of MWEB’s new low-cost uncapped
broadband products which ignited the
community and gave them (something of great
relevance to them) to talk about and share.
photo via jamescridland / flickr.com

9. Insights into South African Social Media
collected from MWEB’s “Free the WEB SA” campaign

10. Despite the campaigns rampage of Facebook, 1 follower on twitter equated to
about 53 FaceBook fans. Where there is very little demographical and
statistical information about twitter users in South Africa for us to understand
it more holistically, the campaign gave us some great insight into the
relationships between local users and two… “Important” channels.
Sorry, That User Name is Already Taken of Flickr

11. MWEB’s campaign boasts fine and simple usage of channels to gather the
following. Where they could have gone and bought a domain, set up a blog
and/or even something flashy, listed on YouTube and really done
more...They centred the campaign to Facebook and in my in opinion used
Twitter like a “by the way”.

12. If there’s one thing that
separates local from
international, it is our
culture. MWEB’s campaign
made use of an experience
only experienced here
locally and this in turn help
targeted groups and
audiences of common
interests.

13. When MWEB surprised their community that they were behind the initiative,
there was a small degree of backlash. A small group question “HOW CAN
MWEB FREE THE WEB WHEN THEY HAVE A BOTTOM LINE”. Local participants
were not afraid to speak out and/or vent their negative opinion.

14. Their story was
worthy of passing
on to a friend.
Their mechanic
allowed
participation via
mobile.
The overall
campaign was
“mobile
friendly and
welcoming”.

15. facebook.com/eshaam
twitter.com/eshaam
huddlemind.net/profile/EshaamRabaney