Vodafone Free SIM
A management system used to track the effectiveness of Vodafone's Free SIM advertising campaigns

Project details
Brief
Track and report on Vodafone's Free SIM distribution strategy in the UK
Strategy
Campaign management system to monitor the effectiveness of media placements
Implementation
An online ordering website, management portal and display advertising aggregation platform
Deliverables
- freesim.vodafone.co.uk
Client
Vodafone UK
Agency
Agency Republic
Creative Technologist
Markets
- United Kingdom
Audience
- 16-25-year-olds
- International students
Lifespan
15 May 2011
Outcomes
- Over 3.4M orders in 2 years
- 81% uplift in click-to-order conversions through optimisation
- Highest Net Promoter Score (NPS) tracked by Vodafone UK
Key technologies
PHP
CodeIgniter
WURFL Device Detection
HTML5
Campaign
Flight of the bumblebee
Vital news
Pay-as-you-go ad
Artefacts
Campaign management system
To support Vodafone's Free SIM operation, Agency Republic developed the Free SIM CMS, a system to manage the distribution of Vodafone Pay as you go SIM cards across the United Kingdom.
The system tracks the effectiveness of advertising campaigns across media placements including:
- Free SIM website
- Display/banner ads
- Television
- Outdoor posters
- Affiliates
- Distributors
Customers received their SIM card(s) within 72 hours (critical, as the quicker it arrives the more likely it is to be activated and topped up).

Desktop interface
To highlight the different value propositions offered by Vodafone, users are presented with a choice page to help them select the most relevant product.
This page was run through multi-variant testing and A/B testing to understand how different content (images, text, etc.) encouraged users to become customers.

Placing an order
Once a proposition has been selected, users can fill in their details to have a Vodafone Free SIM pre-provisioned with their proposition sent to them.
The form page allows users to dynamically change the selected proposition and get more in-depth information about the offer.
To increase order fidelity users can enter their postcode to search for their address rather than manually entering their address into the form. This significantly reduced the amount of SIM cards returned to Vodafone.
Once a user enters their information they receive a confirmation email and their data is sent for cleansing and fulfilment.
Despatch, activation and top-up information is sent from Vodafone and matched against orders to identify the effectiveness of their originating campaign.

Adaptive web design
To deliver the best user experience, the Vodafone Free SIM website delivers a front-end interface optimised for the user's device through adaptive design techniques.
Through adaptive design, a database of device capabilities (identified by the User-Agent) would define whether a user experienced the smartphone or feature phone interface.
Collaborators
- Bashkim Isai
Creative Technologist - Al Campbell
Executive Creative Director - Jason Keet
Art Director - James Hodson
Copywriter - Stephen Armstrong
Client Services - Lucy Fish
Client Services - Amanda Taylor
Client Services - Richard Templeman
Head of Project Management - Monica Ritz
Project Management - Mark Andrews
Project Management - Tom Cole
Head of Technology - Chris Rosser
Senior Developer - Tomasz Szarzynski
Developer - Michael Robinson
Head of Design - Heiko Winter
Designer - Huda Abdul Aziz
Designer - Andy Cooper
Designer - Nic Goodall
Head of Quality Assurance - Victoria Copeman
Quality Assurance