Project Overview
IBM iX helped Hutchison’s new brand Mobile Online (MO) to disrupt a traditional telco industry and created MO Box, a unique subscription-based mystery box service that goes with their contract-free mobile service MO. Designed and developed jointly by our Hong Kong and Shanghai iX teams, the MO app allows self-service functionalities and MO Box management via intuitive interfaces.
Project Commissioner
Hutchison Telecommunications (HK) Ltd.
Project Creator
Team
IBM iX, your global business design partner.
When change is constant, companies need to constantly change. We help our clients design for the future while evolving their existing businesses. We work at the intersection of strategy, creativity, and technology to help our clients digital reinvent their business. Partner with us to define your strategy, create exceptional experiences, and build your business, by design.
MO Project Team:
Eric Ma, Vera Chan, Buelent Aydindag, Kenneth Chen, Sherman Lee, Michael Tam, Francis Tan, Yves Chu, Alice Casiraghi, Patti Tang, Bryan Nguyen, Doris Fung, Laurens Bouwkamp, Vivian Chan, Emilie Ho, Anthony Liu, Leman Kwok, Choi Wing Chiu, Lili Gao, and Lu Yu.
Project Brief
Mobile services have been a necessity for everyone, especially the Millennials, and it has also become a commodity. Consumers have no incentives to stay with any given service provider as they all charge similarly for providing rigid, non-customer-centric services. Many traditional telcos are springing off sub-brands to offer contract-free, online-self-managing mobile SIM services. These telcos include Hutchison’s new standalone brand, MO, aka Mobile Online. MO now has a race to make, not just to catch up with other new online telcos, but also to offer something different.
Project Need
MO understand that Millennials don’t just want freedom (of contractual controls) but also intrigue. To satisfy that unique blend of needs, MO needs to quickly pivot from what other online telcos are offering (just prepaid SIM services) and offer something new - the MO Box.
A unique subscription-based mystery box service that could be activated once a customer purchased a MO SIM online. Like the contract-free mobile service that comes with the MO SIM, the MO Box service would be self-manageable from the web. Catered to Millennials’ mobile-first behavior, they can simply add data to SIM, rate their MO Box satisfaction, and manage everything directly from the App.
User Experience
Through a user-centric approach, the new brand MO is designed to add value to a new segment of customers that are increasingly crucial to every traditional telco. The MO Box adds emotional intrigue to the Millennials while the new online-only MO SIM mobile services offer freedom.
All self-managing mobile service tasks on the App are designed to be achievable in 2 mins to ensure the user experience are as smooth and as mobile-friendly as it could be. This '2-mins' experience design principle is also an extension of how we bring the brand's bold and freedom aspects to live.
This combination of innovations brought a disruption to the telco market. In fact, this also brings Hutchison’s teams together to operate in a new business model. A traditional telco giant is now delivering freedom and shipping intrigue every month? That’s the real surprise.
Project Marketing
While the innovation of this project has always been focused on delivering better values to the customers, the team also believe bringing a delightful experience with surprising elements is paramount to the success of this new brand. Hence the design of the MO App has these kinds of visual surprises and interaction delights glittered in every turn of the corner.
Equally, we acted as a creative bouncing board for Hutchison's internal MO team on their marketing initiatives to launch this new brand. From social media posts to the Launch Events where prospective customers would download the MO App on the spot and sign up to the new service, IBM iX provided creative input and feedback to ensure the end-to-end brand and service experiences are in sync with the lively, and bold brand tone.
Project Privacy
Since we began to design and develop the MO app (and along the way, pivot the business model together with Hutchison and added the MO Box subscription service) until MO launched it, the project was private and confidential, but now is public for all MO's customers.
We also comply with all the requirements of privacy and confidentiality regarding the private information of our clients. Extensive user testing was also conducted to ensure integrity.
Digital - New Service or Application
This can be any new service or application from a start-up to an industry leader. It’s not just bells and whistles we're after but true innovation, exceeding expectations and filling a void that had previously been open.
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