PRCA APAC Awards 2025
'Clouding Up' the next billion internet users
Winner: Best Technology Campaign
The Hoffman Agency & CloudMosa
This award recognizes The Hoffman Agency's exceptional work in crafting and executing an integrated campaign for CloudMosa's Cloud Phone.
The launch of CloudMosa’s Cloud Phone was more than a product introduction — it marked the debut of groundbreaking technology with the potential to change the world. Addressing the global challenge of bridging the digital divide, it offered a revolutionary solution: enabling low-cost feature phones to run modern apps for as little as $12, empowering the next billion users.w
Our campaign positioned CloudMosa as a visionary force in digital inclusion and a critical partner for the mobile ecosystem, including manufacturers, carriers, and content providers. It featured a refreshed digital presence, creative storytelling, influencer engagement, strategic partnerships, and high-impact media outreach.
The results were transformative in positioning CloudMosa as a leader in affordable connectivity, raising awareness with 620+ media stories and 830 million impressions. Most importantly, the campaign delivered tangible business results with Cloud Phone achieving its first million active users.
Challenge
- Reaching the next billion users: Cloud Phone needed to stand out as a transformative solution, addressing the digital divide with affordable, app-enabled feature phones for emerging markets.
- Establishing credibility: Positioning CloudMosa as a groundbreaking innovator required overcoming market skepticism about feature phones and showcasing their potential to drive digital inclusion.
- Overcoming media and market barriers: Communicating CloudMosa’s software-driven innovation meant tackling biases favoring hardware and redefining feature phones as powerful tools for connectivity and economic growth.
Goals
- Awareness: Establish global recognition for Cloud Phone as a transformative technology in affordable connectivity and drive conversations on digital inclusion.
- Credibility: Position CloudMosa as an essential partner in the mobile ecosystem, showcasing Cloud Phone as a catalyst for digital inclusion and economic growth.
- Business Development: Build partnerships with manufacturers, telecom carriers, and content providers, driving Cloud Phone adoption to achieve the milestone of one million active devices and demonstrate market success.
Insight
We identified a critical equation for digital inclusion: A) connectivity + B) affordable devices capable of running essential applications. While connectivity had advanced significantly through efforts by governments and big tech, we uncovered the overlooked “B-Gap”— the lack of affordable devices for underserved populations. This gap became the foundation of our campaign strategy to start a "Cloud Up" movement, celebrating Cloud Phone’s power to connect the next billion people while creating business opportunities across the mobile ecosystem.
Strategy
- Distinct Voice and Thought Leadership: Positioned CloudMosa as bold and innovative, framing digital inclusion as both necessity and opportunity to highlight Cloud Phone’s impact.
- Build Credibility: Partnered with global brands like HMD to enhance market positioning.
- Show, Don’t Tell: Demonstrated Cloud Phone’s groundbreaking features to media and influencers, showcasing capabilities like streaming and social media on feature phones.
- Targeted Outreach: Focused on telecom carriers, manufacturers, and content providers to drive adoption and advocacy.
Approach
- Story-Driven Content: We crafted thought leadership articles, user stories and bylines that showcased CloudMosa’s unique perspective and innovation. Analogies like “Cloud Phone as a comet for the telecoms industry” and “RIP 2G” framed its potential to bridge the 2G-to-4G gap and urged content providers to “cloud up or lose billions”. These narratives targeted manufacturers, telecom carriers, and content providers and were featured as bylines in key trade outlets. Content published on CloudMosa’s LinkedIn and Medium pages drove inquiries from business leaders worldwide.
- Refreshed Digital Presence: We rebuilt Cloud Phone’s website to reflect the “Cloud Up” movement and the “B-Gap” narrative. The redesign included revamped copy, thought leadership sections, and a press center to support the campaign. Approachable language and visuals showcased the technology’s human impact, setting CloudMosa apart from other tech vendors.
- Partnership Marketing: Partnered with HMD Global (makers of Nokia phones) for joint PR and marketing initiatives, aligning with their mission of affordable access. Collaborations included flagship launches like the Nokia Queen range and the iconic Nokia 3210 reboot, alongside joint press releases and interviews with HMD’s APAC and India CEO. HMD’s sponsorship of devices for media engagement boosted visibility and paved the way for partnerships with brands like Itel and telecom carriers such as Viettel and Vodacom.
- Creative Influencer Outreach: Our storytelling-driven review kit gave influencers hands-on access to Cloud Phone’s potential. Through bold visuals, the unboxing experience highlighted the phone’s role in bridging the digital divide. By encouraging influencers to explore features like streaming, social media, and apps firsthand, we reframed perceptions of feature phones and inspired them to share Cloud Phone’s story as a game-changing device. This approach not only reframed perceptions of feature phones but left influencers genuinely excited to share how this could redefine connectivity for the next billion users.
- Global press launch: Coordinated a global press announcement highlighting Cloud Phone’s role in addressing the “B Gap” and driving digital inclusion. Prioritized key markets like India for high-profile interviews with publications such as The Economic Times, resulting in standout coverage like “HMD Global, CloudMosa Bet on Cloud Phones to Help Migrate India’s 300mn 2G Users to 4G.” Secured global coverage in top-tier outlets such as Telecoms.com and The Register, with headlines like “This Can Change the World,” and “Can 4G feature phones rise again, thanks to thin clients?” establishing CloudMosa as a leader in affordable connectivity.
Results
Awareness
- Secured 620+ pieces of global media coverage, reaching 830M impressions.
- 100% key message pull-through in top-tier publications like the Associated Press, Economic Times of India, Telecoms.com and The Register.
Credibility
- Strengthened CloudMosa’s reputation via partnerships and media outreach.
- Secured coverage across key trade, vertical, and technology media establishing CloudMosa as a credible and essential partner for telecom carriers, manufacturers, and content providers.
- Positive influencer reviews with Tech Makhnified and Times of India’s Gadget Now in India and Jose Briones aka Dumbphone Reviews in the US with more reviews in the pipeline.
Business Development
- Expanded Cloud Phone’s ecosystem from 2 devices to 40+ brands and 40 device models.
- Secured carrier partnerships with Viettel, Vodacom, and MTN, enabling 2G-to-4G transitions.
- Our campaign played a key role in successfully securing CloudMosa’s milestone of achieving one million active Cloud Phone devices, now in use across 100 markets worldwide.
