How MTN Xtra-Cool onboarded an entire generation

Inadvertently or Purposely??

It was in the evening when the ad played, a bunch of youths having fun at a party then once it was 12:30 am, everyone stops dancing and picks up their phones to make phone calls till 4:30 am. This may sound bizarre today but calls were very expensive back then and thus limited in duration. The MTN XtraCool midnight plan gave an opportunity for people to interact freely without limits or restrictions which attracted a young generation to its network. The plan disrupted the sleep cycles and rest periods of a generation just for the goal of longer social communication. The XtraCool period ensured that a young Nigerian population forged emotional bonds, had interesting conversations and insights, created long-lasting relationships etc. Personal example here, My aunt communicated with her future husband with this plan and also so many others.

MTN inadvertently created an onboarding program that reached out to a very young population and basically lured them into the MTN ecosystem. Even when MTN had its issues e.g. poor network coverage, high call rates, low data plans compared to the rest of the competition etc. It still maintained a loyal following among its subscribers despite the availability of services such as Porting(it allows a user to switch networks without needing to buy a new sim). Ask the average 30-40 Nigerian MTN user and they will have a memory of the emotional bonds, unique conversations, stories that were told etc. that created a loyal bond to the yellow network. Over the years, Call rates got cheaper and various chat apps such as Whatsapp, Telegram etc. reduced the need for a midnight call plan. MTN finally ended the midnight plan in 2017.

Creating a midnight plan was probably a business move to attract a younger demographic to its network but led to other effects that will still see today. The XtraCool midnight plan is a unique case study because it created an emotional link between the product and the user making them loyal customers for years to come.