Vodafone immersed itself in a youth audience’s world – and used data, insight and the latest technology to create a campaign that outshone the market and delighted its audience.
Goal
Build a future consumer pipeline by engaging with a youth audience in Ireland
Approach
Vodafone rigorously examined Google’s data to understand what made this audience tick. The campaign was built based on these insights and enhanced with the latest VOGON technology
Results
65% lift in recall, a result that is best in class globally
16% lift in consideration
341% lift in searches for Vodafone youth brand terms
364% lift in youth product keywords
All commercial goals achieved
Vodafone Ireland, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group, was keen to strengthen its relationship with a youth audience (18-24 year olds) and in doing so grow its future consumer pipeline.
Whilst this audience already knew the Vodafone brand, more could be done to demonstrate how the brand was relevant to their specific needs. So Vodafone set itself the ambitious challenge of attracting the attention of 18-24 year olds and communicating a relevant and appealing proposition. It had to speak to their needs and be delivered in their language.
It all started with data
Working closely with its Google team from initial inception through to execution, Vodafone embarked on BrandLab, a two day brand workshop to crack its youth market challenge.
Vodafone started by examining Google’s data in order to understand what made this particular audience tick. It was clear from the beginning that YouTube would play a central role in this campaign, and the creative had to engage users on mobile too.
Digging deeper, Vodafone identified not only what the interests of this audience were, but also when these interests peaked during the year: valuable insight that would help determine the timing of the campaign.
"We put data at the heart of everything we do. By partnering with Google, it helped us to enrich our knowledge of this audience, and enabled us to ensure our campaign was relevant, even down to the music we used in the creative"
– Lutfullah Kitapci, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer / Consumer Business Unit Director, Vodafone Ireland
Getting into the consumer’s shoes
For two days Vodafone immersed itself in this audience’s world. By the end of the workshop, they discovered how 18-24 year olds liked to be talked to – as well as the style, tone and feel – and what the campaign needed in order to make them sit up and listen.
Lutfullah Kitapci, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer / Consumer Business Unit Director, Vodafone Ireland, adds that: “At Vodafone, we put data at the heart of everything we do, so from our research into the youth market we knew that life changes hugely between the ages of 18-24. By partnering with Google, we were able to understand these changes, helping us to enrich our knowledge of this audience, and enabling us to ensure our campaign was highly relevant to them, even down to the music we used in the creative."
The brand workshop resulted in the following 30-second hero ad:
This hero ad promoted the Vodafone X offer, which included 20GBs of data as well as deals related to music, sport, and other areas of interest.
But Vodafone wanted to push the envelope even further. In order to deepen its engagement with this audience, it turned to VOGON, and they were the first Telco brand in EMEA to use this technology. VOGON allows you to dynamically serve ads in the context of what the user is about to watch, making the ad extremely tailored. In addition to the hero ad, Vodafone created a series of Bumper ads using VOGON.
The results: A brand recall that was best in class globally
How did the campaign perform? Vodafone were delighted to discover that every time a viewer chose to watch one of their ads, they watched it until the very end. This spoke volumes about the strength of the creative and was also extremely affirming: Vodafone was serving the right message at the right time.
Vodafone saw a 16% lift in consideration amongst 18-24 year olds, significantly outperforming other youth-oriented Telco brands in the market. Moreover, the campaign achieved an incredible 65% lift in recall, a result that was best in class globally.
But that’s not all. The campaign drove a 341% lift in searches for Vodafone youth brand terms and a 364% lift in youth product keywords – and most importantly, Vodafone achieved all of its commercial goals. Embracing data, taking advantage of Google’s brand workshops and adopting the latest technology resulted in a campaign that far exceeded Vodafone’s expectations.
