Bonga for Good was a campaign for Safaricom - Kenya's largest telecommunications company, with over 18 million subscribers -that ran in 2020, when COVID-19 struck.

The campaign turned Safaricom's customer loyalty points, named Bonga Points, into an alternative currency. This alternative currency could be used by the needy who were facing economic hardships brought on by the pandemic, to purchase goods and services - such as food and healthcare services, from a wide range of merchants and service providers. The campaign enabled Kenyans to come together for Kenyans, because those from the middle-class and upper-class who had millions of Bonga points were enabled, through a USSD code to donate to those in need, who in-turn used them to purchase items at points of sale.

This project is:
Client-commissioned

Agency
Isobar Kenya

My Role in This Project
I was the lead copywriter in the team that created the campaign - Bonga for Good, where we converted Safaricom’s Loyalty points, named Bonga Points, into an alternative currency that could be used to help the needy purchase essential goods and services from a vast range of service providers and merchants during COVID pandemic in 2020-2021.

Personally, existing in a time of extreme uncertainty and still having a steady source of income, a roof over my head and food on the table did not only make me feel grateful...it made me feel guilty. Guilty of the privilege of certainty. And through conversations at home and with friends, I realised that this this sentiment was shared across the Kenyan middle-class. Kenyans wanted to help those who were hard hit by the pandemic, however, we also needed to hold on to our cash reserves. So we were left with a sense of helplessness, as we felt that we didn't have much to spare.

I chose to focus on that element during the building of the communication for this campaign. Empowering Kenyans to help by educating them on how they could use a simple USSD code to donate Bonga loyalty points that they were more willing to let go of; to help put food on the table of someone who needed it the most. And all the while, concurrently educating the masses on the vast range of goods and services they could pay for with Bonga loyalty points, from food stuffs to healthcare services.

And it worked; through the 18 million Safaricom subscribers, millions of Bonga loyalty points were donated to Kenyans in need, and more than that, there was a sense of Undugu (Swahili for brotherhood) amongst Kenyans in a time where people could really benefit from it.