Voxi

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Title of the piece

Lorem ipsum ergo sum this is a caption blurb about the article.

Title of the piece

Lorem ipsum ergo sum this is a caption blurb about the article.

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH YOUTUBE ADVERTISING

By Sean Hargrave

Vodafone’s youth proposition, VOXI, is designed to appeal to a young audience, who may find a traditional unlimited data tariff too expensive and inflexible. Instead, it has always offered ‘Endless Social Media’ access, which does not eat into a monthly data allowance. When it added ‘Endless Video’ to its lineup, logic suggested the best channel to communicate the new service was YouTube. However, in the first instance, adverts were not considered the most appropriate way to introduce 18- to 34-year-olds to its service and get them talking about it. According to Maria Koutsoudakis, brand and marketing director for VOXI, the company had been prompted to add Endless Video to its service after being seriously impressed by content creators on the platform. So, it decided these creators - the people its core audience watch on YouTube - should be the ones to communicate the benefits of VOXI through its ‘Be Endless’ campaign. “We decided to add video to the service after attending a Google conference where we were blown away by the entrepreneurial spirit of how young people are using YouTube,” she says. “We realised that our core audience love both social and video and we wanted to tap into the video aspect by getting popular content creators to engage our audience in an authentic way, to tell them VOXI offers Endless Video and Social Media. We wanted our audience to discover our service and talk about us supporting the people they support when they watch their favourite content creators on YouTube.”

How YouTube creators helped Vodafone drive new awareness for VOXI

When Vodafone’s youth-oriented mobile brand VOXI wanted to tell young people about its ‘Endless Video’ service, it found tapping the authenticity of creators through YouTube BrandConnect was the best way to drive up awareness and consideration.

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At its heart, VOXI is designed to make young people feel they have an unlimited SIM-only deal, without being tied down by a contract and a high monthly fee. “We give our customers the feeling they are on an unlimited tariff by providing endless access to the things they love to do most, and that’s go on social and stream videos,” Koutsoudakis says. “We want to empower our users to be at their best and that’s what we could see in YouTube creators. The channel democratises creating video content by making it accessible to anyone who has great creative ideas people will want to watch. These creators are amazing with their energy and creativity, and that was what we wanted to support while getting over an authentic message from the people our audience feel a connection with.” The campaign was split into two halves. In the first, starting in Q4 2020, VOXI used Google’s in-house branded content platform, YouTube BrandConnect, to establish relationships with three content creators to drive awareness of VOXI’s offering by talking about its service at the start of their content. In the second half, during Q1 of 2021, creators integrated the brand and its proposition into their creative. Although these creators tapped into key passion areas for VOXI’s target audience – including beauty, cooking and gaming – they were not chosen primarily for the interest they aligned with. Koutsoudakis explains that rather than concentrate first on genres, VOXI wanted to use YouTube BrandConnect for insight into the audiences each creator could potentially open up. VOXI used YouTube’s audience-based matchmaking to connect with creators who were already reaching VOXI’s target consumer audiences. “We could have dealt directly with influencers, but we realised that Google’s rich dataset on YouTube creators would show us who would work best for our ‘Be Endless’ message,” she explains. “So, we didn’t go for interests, we simply looked at the maths. The benefit of the Google data was that we not only knew how big a following each creator had, but we also had a good idea of their demographic and, most importantly, if they have an active audience that would engage with our message.”

Consumers see endless possibilities

“We were led by the maths on whom to work with and we also wanted to see the impact of those organic views on engagement and consideration”

And YouTube is in a league of its own compared to the other alternatives. ■

— Maria Koutsoudakis, VOXI

The first part of the ‘Be Endless’ campaign was designed to attract organic views to raise awareness of VOXI’s £15 plan, mentioning that it offered Endless Social Media and Endless Video. The campaign ran in Q4 2020, allowing VOXI to tap into the traditional peak buying season for mobile phone handsets and contracts. This was a departure for the network, whose busiest time is usually Q3, due to the return to school and college in September. Each creator started off their content with an opening segment, clearly labelled as sponsored by VOXI, to explain the network and the possibilities opened up by endless access to social media and video. The first phase of the campaign was designed to raise awareness of both VOXI and its addition of Endless Video to its proposition, while the second phase aimed to drive a deeper engagement with engaged fans. In the second half of the campaign, during Q1 of 2021, VOXI worked with two creators in the lifestyle and entertainment space, who had submitted compelling ideas for how they would weave a message about the network and its new, time-limited £12 offer. The messaging was integrated into their videos to ensure it was presented at the heart of their content, driving deeper engagement and showcasing an authentic connection with the brand.

Driving deeper engagement

YouTube creators provided an authentic message from people who VOXI's audience connect with

Being able to measure the success of the two-part campaign was an important part of working with BrandConnect, according to Koutsoudakis. VOXI wanted to make sure it had improved awareness of its services while also driving engagement among its key audience. “We were led by the maths on whom to work with and we also wanted to see the impact of those organic views on engagement and consideration,” she says. “So analysis was another reason to go through Google. It has the data to tell us what impact the campaign had without us needing to run our own research.” The results showed that over 4 million views were delivered. Over 75% of views came from unique viewers which was more than double the anticipated level set out at the start of the campaign. This was helped by two of the videos delivered by key creators, which trended in the top 10 videos of the day on release. The additional momentum drove average engagement with VOXI’s content up to just under 13 minutes. Crucially for VOXI, the work with creators delivered results, doubling awareness in phase one and raising it by over 400% in phase two. Brand interest also rose significantly, with an increase in search terms such as ‘VOXI plans’ of more than 1,000%. These positive results prompted VOXI to run an advertising campaign to help people who had engaged with the brand to move down the funnel from awareness to consideration. This final phase saw further growth in awareness and consideration, and blew past expectations with a 162% uplift in search. For Koutsoudakis, the uplifts in both awareness and consideration provided by the two phases of working with content creators are evidence that influencer video is a channel the telecoms company should consider again in the future. For a company that wants to connect with a specific demographic, she believes it makes sense to use the authenticity of the people they subscribe to on YouTube to generate interest, excitement and lasting impact. ■

Leaps in awareness