Bangladesh’s No. 1 Local Search Engine

Online searches have become a solution to our instant queries with global giants such as Google and Bing leading as the go to platform for answering our curious minds. However, when it comes to finding a business locally there was little that these search engines could offer.  Amarphonebook.com was launched to localize search results for Bangladeshi netizens in need. With an initial database of over 500,000 local businesses across hundreds of categories, Amarphone book aimed to gain traction from individuals and businesses who wanted to find and be found and also grow their reach. Amar Phonebook provides useful information through classified listings on a host of categories such as restaurants, malls, ATMs, movie halls etc. Amar Phonebook currently is Bangladesh’s no.1 local search destination. It provides comprehensive updated information on all the B2B and B2C products and services.

Havas Bangladesh assigned for branding and promotion of this site. The campaign aimed to drive traffic to the site and to get general & businesses users to register. The very nature of the Amarphone book service is difficult to define. It was a directory service but it would also provide personalized assistance while, at the same time, give small businesses a chance to promote to a targeted audience. In short – it was the yellow pages- meets Google ads- meets a hotel concierge service.  For the outdoor campaign, we decided to embrace this pseudo-chaotic nature of the brand.

We conceptualized a visually driven campaign that communicates the brands range of services that seems to go from one end of the spectrum to another. We called this visual style “chaos that makes sense” and it depicted the juxtaposition of two completely separate items that is jarring but when considered separately but visually complimented each other – with both object organically flowing into each other.

More than just visual stylization however, using two unrelated objects served the purpose of communicating of range without having to list everything out. The moment we said “find everything from doctors to designers” the audience would fill in the blanks and presumably concluded that everything in between must be available too. Amazing results, High Awareness of the Service due to strategic locations of the Billboards (Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Motijheel). 500,000 Organic visits in 1st month exceeding campaign targets by 200%. 15,000 New Businesses Registered on site exceeded the campaign target by 300%.