The Brand Tracking research showed that consumers considered Vodafone’s coverage to be worse than the competitors. By taking this as the starting point, we contemplated on how to solve this problem without having to take great numbers of people in the middle of nowhere to experience the quality themselves. We decided that a social responsibility project would be the way to get the attention of our target audience, who are the Turkish people in general. 60% of forests in Turkey are under risk of being destructed by the fire and every year, forest land equivalent of 4.372 football fields are being destructed by fire in Turkey. Turkish Statistical Institute’s researches show that this massive destruction is caused by late intervention. This data gave us inspiration to use our advanced technology for the greater good by using 4.5G data transfering technology.

In order to continue Vodafone’s projects for sustainable life that have been going on for years and help prevent forest fires, we needed to warn the relevant institutions about forest fires by using our quality expanded coverage and M2M technologies. We crafted the Treephone Project (May 2016-January 2017), reinforcing the perception of the brand as being more than a GSM operator, serving for a greater cause, with high quality in technologic services. We placed temperature-measuring devices on forest trees in the most fire-sensitive areas. The devices warned the relevant institutions if the temperature would be more than it is under normal circumstances. Usage of real-time data, generated by the trees themselves, enabled the rapid notifying of the authorities who arrived shortly after the warning, preventing the fire to expand.

Treephone project planted 60 Treephone devices on trees. The use of real-time data was essential for this project as it was used as a medium to improve brand image and serve for a greater cause at the same time. By enabling the forest trees to generate real-time data to warn the relevant institutions during the early stages of the fire occurance, Vodafone continued its sustainability projects and saved 65,5 hectars of forest. The saved forest land is equivalent of the scale of 936 football fields, which means that this project alone prevented one fifth of the annual forest destruction that occurs in Turkey, with approximately 70,000 trees saved. The perception of Vodafone’s quality improved by 30%, 5% more than initially expected.

This case is an example of how real-time data can be used as a medium to improve brand image, while making the communication with trees possible in order to serve for a greater cause.

We knew that to detect meaningful insights, we needed to look for the correct sources of data. During our data gathering process, we kept in mind that this project had to be a social responsibility one serving for a greater cause, with the whole of Turkey as the target audience. After doing research to diagnose a problem of the country that Vodafone’s 4.5G coverage could solve, we asked ourselves, “what if, real-time data could save the trees from being destructed by the fire?” Afterwards, our research focused on the locations in which most forest fires occur. We found out that late intervention was the cause of most forest fires in Turkey. Our research provided us with a higher comprehension of the forest fire problem in Turkey, therefore targeting the solution that Vodafone was going to offer.

SITUATION –

The Brand Tracking Research showed that the consumers considered the network and coverage quality of Vodafone to be worse than its competitors. To prove our quality, our target audience had to experience it firsthand in countryside. We decided to use our fast data transfer to save the forests of Turkey.

BRIEF –

We needed a simple solution as to how we could prove Vodafone’s quality of 4.5G coverage without having people go in the middle of nowhere.

OBJECTIVE –

By using our coverage service that expands to places where any operator in Turkey can’t, we needed to prove our fast data transfer to target audience, while also serving for a greater cause.