Telefónica Europe won the Transform award for Best internal communication of a rebrand.

The winning entry was the story of how digital media was used to create one Telefónica family in Europe.

And in the process, one of the largest internal brand engagement programmes in Europe was created.

The challenge was bringing together five countries passionate about O2 and to create one culture, proud of Telefónica.

The core elements of the campaign were;

A video of our CEO setting the agenda Explaining the context for the change, and what it meant to be part of Telefónica.

A 10-day teaser campaign called ‘Did you know?’

A microsite told the story of Telefónica through facts, quizzes, videos and daily email teasers.

Pass it on – A managers’ briefing pack Support for managers to circulate key messages to their teams and lead discussions.

The online pack included a film, quiz, briefing booklet and feedback form.

Launch events were also held in all markets.

The results speak for themselves:
» The Did You Know? Website got: 22,000 hits in 2 weeks
» 47,000 pages read
» 2 mins average spent on the site (some markets spent 4 mins on the site)
» 76% of people read daily emails
» 10,000 people entered daily competitions The wider campaign trained more than 3,000 staff and 6,000 people downloaded the video in the first 2 weeks.

The site is now part of training for new employees – and they give an average score of 4/3 out of 5 feeling proud of Telefónica.

A great project that is justifiably winning awards left right and centre! — Hat’s off to SomeOneElse who orchestrated the incredibly complex and diverse online aspects

The project was part of Telefónica’s new global brand strategy to create one employee brand across all of its markets. Telefónica employs 260,000 people in 25 countries and is the parent company of O2 in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia – as well as Movistar in Spain and Latin America, and Vivo in Brazil.

The campaign was titled ‘Did You Know?’ and was created to help Telefónica’s employees understand the brand changes on a practical and emotional level by communicating the transformation in a clear, warm and engaging way.

An iconic question mark visual made up of hundreds of different objects representing Telefónica, O2, Movistar and Vivo’s campaigns, sponsorships and charities formed the heart of the campaign. This was to represent the breadth of the Telefonica family and to ensure that employees feel they were part of something big. This visual was seen on email templates, microsites, posters, magazines, internal building campaigns and in all information packs circulated internally.

Amanda Clay, Telefónica Europe’s project leader, said: “Internally we wanted to create something special. Changing the brand internally was all about getting our employees to be proud of Telefónica and at the same time remaining passionate about O2. What we changed had to be better than what was there before across all our internal touch points. We wanted to raise the bar to prove change is for the better.”

Clay added: “The results speak for themselves. The microsite received more than 20,000 hits and over 47,000 pages of content were viewed over two weeks. The average time spent on the site across markets was two minutes, reaching a high of four minutes in some regions, demonstrating a high level of engagement with the content.”

__

The Transform Awards is the UK’s leading awards programme to recognise, benchmark and celebrate excellence in brand transformation. The awards provide an opportunity for all staff, at companies and agencies alike, to see their efforts recognised and to celebrate excellence in rebranding.

—

A note on the other awards…

1
Telefónica Europe has also won the prestigious European Excellence Award. The fifth annual award ceremony took place in Amsterdam on 8 December 2011. It was held in the Beurs van Berlage. The Awards honour the most outstanding achievements of communications professionals in their field.

2
The Telefónica Europe Brand team also won Gold for the ‘The Best Change Communication Campaign.’ This was no mean feat as the Awards judges had to evaluate more than 1,300 entries in 57 categories and the jury comprised 34 renowned professionals from all sectors of communication and public relations.

3
The Digital Impact Gold Award for Best Digital Employee Communication 2011.