Vodafone Netherlands is the market leader in mobile technology.

They asked us to create an awareness campaign to underline their position as an innovative leader.

Main KPI: increase Vodafone’s perception as a thought leader in mobile technology.

To do so, we tapped into a locally relevant social issue:

The Netherlands is the number 1 cycling country in the world.

But in recent years the number of cycling accidents has been growing, especially in the dark when we travel to work or to school.

Many cyclists don’t carry lights.

But a rapidly growing problem is that cyclists are distracted by their smartphone.

Vodafone believes that mobile technology can be a powerful force for good.

So we asked ourselves: can smartphones help to improve road safety?

We started by building the jacket and custom app that goes with it.

For the app we made use of Google Maps’ cues for left and right turns.

The jacket was tested multiple times in traffic with various stakeholders in the field of safety, cycling and research and tech.

These rides where documented for PR and social purposes.

When we completed the rides, the campaign went live in the following order:

- Release of campaign video on owned social channels.

- Publication of press release in conjunction with the Dutch Cyclists Association.

Shot after release:

- The Smart Jacket got picked up by almost every major Dutch media title and shared massively by the audience online.

- Vodafone hosted various events at which people could try out the jacket themselves.

In terms of scale we’ve reached around 40% of the country’s population in the first 3 weeks.