Vodafone revamps positioning as it moves on from ‘Power To You’

Vodafone is getting rid of its ‘Power To You’ strapline as it looks to evolve its brand positioning around the theme of “future optimism” and how technology can play positive roles in transforming society and people’s quality of life.

The new strapline, ‘The future is exciting. Ready?’, takes a deliberately more positive and bold outlook than previous campaigns. Vodafone is also revamping its visual identity, changing the Vodafone font and making its speechmark logo more modern with a 2D design.

The changes are backed up by the mobile operator’s biggest marketing campaign since it was founded 33 years ago. Launching in 19 countries today (5 October), the 60-second film aims to show how human interaction must remain a constant even as technology evolves and imagines what the future will be like.

The global brand campaign will be followed up by supporting campaigns in local markets that will pull on relevant messages. So, for example, in some markets Vodafone will be talking up the services it offers to farmers while in others it will explore drones and their uses.

The new positioning will be used across all Vodafone communications whether with consumers, businesses or in its recruitment advertising. This marks the first time all Vodafone’s communications have used the same strapline and look and feel for a creative.

Vodafone is also planning internal communications so all staff understand the new positioning, as well as content for external stakeholders including partners and suppliers.

Power To You has been Vodafone’s strapline for almost 10 years and Serpil Timuray, Vodafone Group’s chief commercial operations and strategy officer, says it has “worked really well  and achieved good results” helping to boost its brand image, brand equity scores and brand consideration. However, she believes that with the mobile industry changing so rapidly, the company’s brand positioning also needed to be updated.

“We were conscious that technology is really changing at a very fast pace and that there are new digital services that are emerging. We also have a full range of initiatives that we are working on and we are conscious that these will transform the ways consumers and businesses live their lives,” she tells Marketing Week.

“We thought we could take a role in bridging these new technologies that may not look accessible for everyone and making them very daily, simple and useful. So we identified a customer need to understand better how these technologies will be in their daily lives and the customer need for a brand to partner with them. We thought it was an excellent time to really reset and announce our new agenda going forward.”