PHONE TOH UTHAO
BBC MEDIA ACTION
PHONE TO UTHAO
Developing a WhatsApp Chatbot to facilitate digital literacy of rural women in Madhya Pradesh
Client: BBC Media Action
Scope of Work: Communication Strategy and Creative Route, Visual Identity, Video Production
THE ASK
As digitisation intensifies in India (especially following the pandemic), research demonstrates a stark gender gap in women’s access to and use of mobile phones, particularly pronounced for rural women. This gap is attributable to both, lack of ownership by and low digital literacy of women due to various socio-economic reasons.
Further, numerous digital literacy interventions have failed to achieve gender-specific goals to augment digital literacy especially among rural women. The lack of success of these programmes is primarily due to the inability to address collective attitudes and gender norms.
In this context, BBC Media Action and the BMGF initiated the Digital Women’s Economic Empowerment Project. This project aims to identify how digital technology can empower women across various socio-economic parameters. Further, the project is exploring whether Women’s Empowerment Collectives (WECs)/ SHGs could effectively harness digital technologies, while mitigating the risk of exacerbating existing inequalities.
Kaboom was on-boarded as a Creative Partner to develop the brand identity and design the audio-visual content for a WhatsApp Chatbot to explore whether the WECs can facilitate learning and demand generation to overcome the normative barriers to women’s digital adoption.
THE SOLUTION
Based on the research undertaken as part of the Digital WEE Project, Kaboom developed the following key components to deliver the Whatsapp Chatbot -
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Brand identity and logo for the Phone toh Uthao initiative
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A persona of a Digital Champion - Khushi Didi, an inspirational figure from within the collective identity of the rural women
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Conceptual framework for the content series with relevant themes such as - opportunity cost of women’s smartphone ownership, digital safety and threats, social media, digital finance, etc.
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Video scripts and storyboards by leveraging familiar narratives, scenarios, and characters from everyday lives
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Video series including 7 thematic videos and 2 videos for capacity building
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Graphic bank for use on the chatbot
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Clear CTAs associated with each video
THE LOGO
The logo uses a pictorial representation of the campaign name while adding dimensions of the possibilities to reach the world with a phone along with the elements to highlight the TA of the campaign.
TYPOGRAPHY AND ICONS
USING RELATABLE EXAMPLES TO EXPLAIN THE NECESSITIES OF A PHONE
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN OF PERSONA - KHUSHI
THEMES COVERED
CHATBOT
OUR PRELIMINARY IMPACT
AUGMENTING DIGITAL SKILLS AND AWARENESS LEVELS
A survey conducted just 4.5 months since project implementation found a significant difference in some digital skills between women in SHGs who were exposed to the content as compared to the control.
It also found significantly higher knowledge of the relevant content regarding the benefits of using mobile phones.
SOCIAL UPLIFTMENT
A significantly higher percentage of women in SHGs who were exposed to the campaign also discussed the benefits
of using mobile phones and accessible funding options with male family members.
