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Our Working Nation campaign gave Vodafone UK, for the first time, a distinctive voice in the business media on issues beyond technology. It also tackled issues around the workplace so stridently it has been praised by think tanks for adding to the debate and became a global best practice case study for issues-based PR campaign at Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world’s largest companies and a UK business success story. The company has the largest share of business customers in the UK of any mobile company, but attitudinal benchmarking research showed that it was perceived by UK businesses as not having empathy with the issues important to them. A campaign was needed to establish Vodafone as a thought leader on changing working practices affecting UK businesses, to highlight potential issues arising from these changes and to establish the real-life context for Vodafone products and services
The approach chosen was a research-based project that would not look just like another PR survey, but be valued as a serious piece of work that would set credibility with academics and professionals as its quality benchmark, be designed from the outset as a body of work that would have a life beyond the immediate campaign, and add seriously to debate around the important issues facing employers and employees in the UK.
The research was carried out using both quantitative and qualitative methods to reach not only employers and employees but also senior business people, politicians, think tanks and other workplace experts. The resulting data was gathered into three reports (on age diversity, loyalty, and ideas and innovation) which were taken to the media via briefings, announcements, events and roundtable debates.
Evidence from think tanks, academics, senior Vodafone UK executives and other blue chip companies demonstrated that the research has made a significant impact on debates around key workplace issues for UK businesses. The campaign exceeded ambitious targets, generating 182 coverage hits which reached over 51 million people, represented an advertising equivalency value of £1.3 million and achievied a “quality index score”, measured by independent evaluators, of 16.7 against a target score of 15.0.
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