[PARTNER CONTENT] Content marketing has proven to be an indispensable element in the modern marketing mix.
Great content campaigns can achieve a range of objectives, from building trust and fostering brand loyalty to generating leads and, most importantly, delivering the brand’s story, in the right place, at the right time.
Seizing this opportunity, ayoba introduced content marketing to the African market in 2022. The super app has already seen significant success with its content projects, offering free music streaming, games, videos, editorial channels localised per territory, and chat and call features.
This multi-faceted approach culminated in ayoba recently reaching a milestone of 30 million monthly active users. The content marketing project went live in February 2023, featuring campaigns for Mondalez brands like Cadbury’s and Chappies, quickly followed by Nedbank [via The Media Shop] and DStv.
“It’s about contextual relevance for brand partners,” comments Gillian Ezra, head of content and engagement for ayoba.
Match audiences by interests
“We are able to match audiences by their interests; for instance, featuring a food brand in our Food Tips and Tricks Channel – or targeting a male audience interested in rugby through our World of Rugby Channel.
“By focusing on interest-based channels [editorial and video] and building in-app traffic drivers around them, like our new Explore page, we are able to achieve excellent results for our brand partners. With our free data offering for MTN users and sustained user engagement, we offer excellent ROI to partners.”
The results speak for themselves. The Chappies campaign stands out as the best performing to date, garnering 392k post views, 225k video views and a 4% CTR. Ayoba takes particular pride in outperforming the same material on a popular social media platform, achieving 10x more views.
Cadbury’s Storytime campaign
Cadbury’s followed their initial Storytime campaign with a second one, highlighting their Springboks sponsorship, currently running across the Sports channels.
“Content-based marketing is so important, especially in our digital environment, where the attention economy is still core for brands wanting to connect meaningfully with their consumers,” says CherylAnn Sawyer, managing partner, Ogilvy Experience.
“Consumers though, are not seeking branded content. They’re seeking content that interests them, mostly from peers, on platforms they trust, and those they find and follow that are influential in their world. So, for brands to make an impact, ayoba offers an immersive experience with quality content that makes branded content appealing and interesting.
“The social trend of mostly short-form content is shifting, with high engagement results from the past two Mondelez campaigns, because of the overall user experience on ayoba. We can clearly see that great content has positively impacted the engagement on the platform – a win for consumers and a win for brands”.
A game-changer for DStv
DStv’s campaign to promote Channel O, launched in late June, has also been well-received and seen impressive engagement rates, especially on the ayoba Music SA channel – exceeding 250k video views, 220k post views, 30k likes and a CTR of 7%.
“Ayoba has been a game-changer for us at Channel O. It’s not just an app, but a gateway to a whole new digital audience that aligns seamlessly with our youth-centric market,” says Charis Coleman, head of digital content at MultiChoice Digital.
“With Ayoba, our growth has been nothing short of remarkable, witnessing month-on-month improvements and referrals to both our OTT platform and website. Surprisingly, some of our content, like new show promos and artist interviews, shine even brighter on Ayoba than on our Channel O website. This speaks volumes about the direct link Ayoba creates between our content and the audience.”
Similarly, Nedbank’s campaigns performed exceptionally well, leading to further collaborations for their Stokvel and Funeral brands. Ayoba is particularly welcoming of the MoneyEdge campaign, which offers much-needed financial education to the user base.
Expanded advertising capabilities
Ayoba’s full-service offering to brand partners includes content creation and optimisation. The platform has also expanded its advertising capabilities by integrating the Google Ad Server, enabling display ads in well-trafficked sections of the app and delivering millions of impressions across a highly engaged audience in music, sport, fashion, and many other content verticals.
The platform’s reach extends across the African continent, initially focusing on Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Ayoba has since expanded its operations to include new markets such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Togo, bringing the total number of operational countries to x.
Born out of a partnership with MTN, ayoba is available on all networks and offers complimentary daily data in certain participating territories, amplifying its value proposition. With its current growth trajectory, Ayoba is on track to achieve 100 million monthly active users by 2025, in line with MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategy.
*VoIP and video calls are not zero-rated for MTN subscribers
Four reasons to use ayoba
- FREE TO USE: Ayoba is free to use, and this includes all our amazing features. You need data to get onto the internet, but if you are on the MTN network, you will get free data every day to use the app.
- EXPLORE OUR LOCAL – FIRST CHANNELS, MUSIC AND GAMES: Free access to a variety of Africa-centric content, all within the ayoba app. From news, sports, fashion, music, education to entertainment – watch the Black Star channel for a taste of Ghana, Scrolla Africa in IsiZulu, Yoruba & Hausa, Pulse Channels for Nigerian and Ghanaian business news coverage, current affairs, entertainment and much more. Our free music service allows users to listen to trending local and international songs in our fantastic playlists. We have games that you can play as well – Mama Mboga, DJ Doger, Simba, Masaai Mkali, Afridoku and more. New content is added every day.
- CHECK OUT OUR MICROAPPS ECOSYSTEM: Browse our catalogue of MicroApps and gain access to local and large businesses across the continent. From the smallest e-commerce enabled local businesses such as BuyMyStuff and Fak’ugesi Festival, to global enablement businesses such as Kitstart and many more.
- CHAT AND CALL ALL YOUR CONTACTS: Instant text and voice messaging, voice notes, and voice and video calls with any of your contacts**. Set up group chats to easily communicate with friends and family in a single chat. Send SMS text messages to anyone in your contact list, regardless of whether they have installed ayoba or not. If your friend does not have the app, the message will be delivered by SMS, and their SMS response will be delivered to your app. This is a unique technology. End-to-end encryption means that messages in a conversation cannot be read by anyone else.
**Note that voice and video calls will consume a user’s data.
About ayoba
Ayoba is highly localised and tailored for African consumer needs, supporting 22 relevant languages. Users can send and receive encrypted messages, share photos, videos, files, and voice notes and can also subscribe to live channels. Family-friendly localised content is available through curated channels aimed at entertaining, educating and empowering communities. There are also a range of games. ayoba is available for Android users on the Google Playstore, Apple Store, PalmStore (Transsion), Huawei and BeMobi stores as well as the ayoba website (ayoba.me).
Since its launch in May 2019, ayoba has reached millions of users, with a current active user base of 30 million monthly active users. It offers users free access to an ecosystem of digital and rich media services through channels, microapps and payment solutions, embedded within an African super-app.
Ayoba is highly localised and tailored for African consumer needs, supporting 22 relevant languages. Users can send and receive encrypted messages, share photos, videos, files, and voice notes and can also subscribe to live channels.
Family-friendly localised content is available through curated channels aimed at entertaining, educating and empowering communities.
There are also a range of games. ayoba is available for Android users on the Google Playstore, Apple Store, PalmStore (Transsion), Huawei and BeMobi stores as well as the ayoba website (ayoba.me).
For more information please contact: Gillian Ezra on pr@ayoba.me
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