#1 Smartphone retail outlet nationwide.
The Challenge
The grey market owned the smartphone category.
YOY smartphone market growth in 2024
Sri Lanka's smartphone market grew 141.9% YOY in 2024, according to IDC. The grey market rode that wave hard. Abans was seen as "expensive." So a quick price check later, the customer was gone.
The Insight
The Idea
Hodama phone ekak ganna Lagama Abans Ekata Yanna!
To get the best phones just go to your Nearest Abans!
Ambassador
Sajitha Anthony
Most Popular Actor of the Year
When Sajitha
Said “Hondama Phone ekak Ganna, Langama Abans Ekata Yanna!” | “To Get The Best Phones, Just Go To Your Nearest Abans!” it didn't sound like advertising, it was someone you respect and look to for advice giving you a recommendation. Depicted as an “Arachchi” (Village leader) his message embodied real life for the mass market, bringing a familiarity of how many would approach this very situation in their own lives.
Digital Execution
How we took it
to every screen.
Awareness → Search → Website → Store
TV to TikTok, billboards to browsers — the campaign met Sri Lanka everywhere it looked.
TVC — PEO TV & Dialog TV
Digital & Social
01FB, IG, TikTok, YouTube. How-to-Pay guides, TRCSL awareness, trilingual product stories across every major platform.
Grey Market Education
02Third-party credibility. Grey market risk explained in plain language, with TRCSL approval front and centre.
Audience Adaptation
03Different audiences, different creative. Platform-native formats, cultural references, and language that actually landed with each group. (Ex: Gen Z and Millennials)
UGC & Product Storytelling
04UGC & product storytelling made the campaign feel more real, relatable, and trusted. It helped turn product moments into human stories that kept the audience engaged.
Offline Visibility
Not just digital. Visible exactly where people decided to buy.
Billboards & OOH
Billboards & truck touchpoints islandwide
Showroom Activations
Showroom POSM activations
Roadshow & Mobile
Smartphone brands all in one retail outlet nationwide
Offline Visibility
When Sri Lankans weren't scrolling, they could still see us.
From prime-time screens to roadside billboards to neighbourhood showrooms.
Business Impact
Abans became the go-to place to buy a phone. Nationwide!
Key Win
#0Smartphone retail outlet nationwide
Sri Lanka's #1 retail destination for smartphones. Not by accident.
Smartphone sales growth
Category sales across all outlets.
Internal category rank
From 11th to 2nd highest revenue inside Abans.
Overall footfall growth
Across all 409 outlets. Up to 529% outside Colombo.
In a nutshell
This didn't win on discounts. It changed why people chose Abans at all. Trusted ownership, easy payments, nationwide reach, and the confidence that after-sales isn't a gamble.
Digital Performance
The Digital Engine.
Digital impressions
Online only. Offline touchpoints not included.
Video views
Nearly 3x Sri Lanka's entire adult population of 17.1M.
Meta interactions
Community engagement that kept going long after the campaign ended.
First-time site visitors
abanssmartphones.com pulled in near-entirely new audiences.
TVC YouTube views via search
Audiences went looking for the campaign. Not the other way around.
Total watch hours
That's 2,900+ days of sustained attention. The kind branded video rarely gets at this scale.
Perception Shift
Before
“Abans is Overpriced”
“Grey market offers the same phone for cheaper.”
After
“Abans = Trusted, Easy, Accessible Ownership, All in your Neighbourhood”
This didn't win on discounts. It changed the reason to buy: trusted ownership, easy payments, nationwide reach, and the confidence that after-sales isn't a gamble. When a category moves from 11th to 2nd and a brand becomes the #1 Smartphone retail outlet nationwide in only 6 months - that's not just a campaign. That is a market shift!
Social Stats
Progress
for Smartphones