Vodafone announces global repositioning of its brand

Telecom major Vodafone, which operates in 36 countries including Qatar , has announced a global repositioning of its brand.The company will roll out the “largest advertising campaign in its 33-year history” tomorrow. The brand repositioning and related advertising campaigns have been built on feedback from some 30,000 people in 17 countries.

The lead TV commercial – a 60-second film focusing on how human interaction remains constant while technologies evolve over time – is produced by Ridley Scott Associates.

Commenting on the new brand campaign, Diego Camberos, commercial business unit director at Vodafone Qatar, said: “We want our customers to feel our commitment to Qatar and trust that the Vodafone brand will always be their digital partner, delivering great innovation and world-class technology.”

So what does the brand repositioning involve? On a technical level, one can boil the key ingredients down to changes in the slogan, logo and introduction of 2D design – but, above all, this is all about Vodafone putting across a carefully calibrated message worldwide to build its brand and engage with populations in the 36 countries, including Qatar, where it operates.

The new strapline states, ‘The future is exciting. Ready?’. The opening sentence will be presented in local languages and the word –‘Ready?’ will be presented in English.

The new visual identity will place much greater emphasis on Vodafone’s iconic ‘speech mark’ logo. The ‘speech’ mark will now appear as the central graphical focus overlaid on all marketing. The logo will also appear in a new 2D design in place of a skeuomorphic 3D approach.

The findings of a major research project commissioned by Vodafone, based on the opinions of 13,000 people in 14 countries, underpins the new messaging. Conducted by YouGov, the research focused on assessing the extent to which the public are optimistic or pessimistic about their future prospects.

Key findings showed that people of all ages believe that technology innovation will have the most positive influence on the future over the next 20 years; 18-24-year-olds are the most optimistic about the future, with 62% of younger people surveyed believing that living standards will be better in 20 years’ time compared to today.

Vodafone also commissioned the Futerra consultancy to identify 10 of the top emerging trends that could transform home and working life. These included a five-fold increase in global power-generation capacity as clean energy, such as solar panels, are extended from rooftops to windows and even some highways; and a tripling of connected sensor usage in farming leading to increased food yields.

Vodafone Group chief commercial operations and strategy officer Serpil Timuray said, “Our new brand positioning is intended to embody Vodafone’s mission and purpose to help our customers and communities adapt and prosper as these remarkable new trends reshape the world.”

She emphasised that Vodafone wants its services to be socially inclusive with a special focus on emerging markets and prioritising the needs of women.

Asked when 5G would become available, she would not put a date on the timing but said the industry was rapidly evolving towards a point when there would be almost zero latency with real-time delivery of communications and a major uplift in data consumption.

Vodafone Qatar commenced commercial operations on March 1, 2009.