Romania has a large population of elderly people from which 40% are living alone. Using this insight, Vodafone and McCann Erickson Bucharest decided to spin a marketing campaign around two Romanian widows who were still in a habit of cooking enough food for a full family dinner.
Using social media, the campaign invited students desperate for a home-cooked meals, to join the ‘Sunday Grannies’ for food. As a result, the grannies’ Facebook page got nearly half-a-million likes, they were covered on the evening news, they got a TV show, were visited by Romanian celebrities, and they started a new trend. Vodafone who used their product to address such a problematic social issue, saw a 78% increase in 4G smart phone sales.