As part of a major global rebranding and brand re-positioning, Vodafone Ireland has launched a new campaign called “Hello” which forms part of the brand’s biggest advertising campaign in its 33-year history.
The lead TVC, created by Ridley Scott Associates and localised for Ireland by Grey London, focuses on how human interaction remains constant while technologies evolve over time.
The strategy – to be implemented across all 36 countries in which the Vodafone brand is present – is designed to underline Vodafone’s belief that new technologies and digital services will play a positive role in transforming society and enhancing individual quality of life over the years ahead. Vodafone’s brand positioning strategy focuses on the theme of optimism about the future, using the new endline, “The future is exciting. Ready?”. The first part of the endline will be presented in local languages with the second part – “Ready?” – presented in English.
According to Vodafone, the new visual identity will place much greater emphasis on Vodafone’s iconic ‘speech mark’ in the biggest change to one of the most recognisable symbols of Vodafone since the ‘speech mark’ logo was created in 1998. The ‘speech mark’ will now appear as the central graphical focus overlaid on all marketing and marketing communications activity. The logo will also appear in a new 2D design in place of a skeuomorphic 3D approach.
The brand positioning strategy and related advertising campaigns were developed after a period of extensive research and concept testing, including quantitative and qualitative inputs from nearly 30,000 people in 17 countries.
Vodafone commissioned cross-market opinion research among almost 13,000 people in 14 countries, including more than 500 people in Ireland, to assess the extent to which the international public are optimistic – or pessimistic – about their future prospects. The research conducted by YouGov across these markets people found that:
- Overall, 48% of people think standards of living will improve in the next 20 years. Among Irish people, this rises to 56%.
- Additionally, 51% of Irish people believe that standards of living will be better for children living in 20 years from now. This is higher than the overall result of 46%.
- 18-24 year olds are the most optimistic about the future: 62% of younger people surveyed believe that living standards will be better in 20 years’ time compared with today.
- Around one fifth of respondents believe that technology innovation will have the most positive influence on the future over the next 20 years, both in Ireland (18%) and internationally (22%). This is followed closely by developments in medical science, and – most interestingly, Changes to societal culture (e.g. greater diversity, greater equality).
According to Lutfullah Kitapci, consumer director, Vodafone Ireland: “Our new brand positioning strategy comes at a momentous time for us in Vodafone, both as a global brand and here in Ireland. Vodafone has a long and proud history of bringing leading edge technologies to hundreds of millions of people worldwide – and in Ireland it’s no different. Vodafone Ireland will continue to drive a digital revolution in communities across Ireland by rolling out gigabit broadband through our joint venture SIRO. Access to high speed broadband will fundamentally change the way Irish citizens will live, work and play and provide a level playing for Ireland to compete on the global stage in terms of business opportunities, growth and investment. Our recently launched NBIOT network will enable millions more devices to be connected to the Internet and will facilitate the development of exciting new technologies that will make cities and urban centres smarter and more efficient in the years ahead.
“We believe there are very good reasons to be optimistic about the future. It’s this positivity that will help us all shape the future, and we at Vodafone have made it our mission to help our customers and communities adapt and prosper as these remarkable trends reshape the world.”
