Vodafone had a budget of €50,000 to trigger a global conversation on traditional and social channels to announce its new global maternity policy, positioning the company as a pioneer in addressing the challenges faced by working mothers and, as a result, increase engagement and advocacy among women worldwide.

The policy gives women across 30 subsidiaries a minimum of 16 weeks fully paid maternity leave and a 30-hour week at full pay for six months after their return to work. Other than the United Nations, very few global organisations have adopted maternity policies of this kind.

To achieve this, Vodafone commissioned KPMG to analyse the aggregate global cost to business of providing 16 weeks of paid maternity leave compared with the global cost of backfilling and training replacement employees for women who do not return to work after a baby. The estimated net $19bn annual cost reduction provided a strong news hook and formed the focus of a short animation video and infographic for online news outlets and social channels. The material was released ahead of International Women’s Day.

Within one week, substantial volumes of coverage were generated across 33 countries (including 17 Vodafone markets), reaching an estimated 268 million people. Over the same period, there were 1.8 million views of the animation online.

In a follow-up survey by Opinion Matters, 90% of people surveyed across four countries said they felt more positively about Vodafone as a result of the maternity policy coverage.

Our aim was to capture traditional and social media attention around International Women’s Day using bespoke research commissioned from KPMG to provide macroeconomic context, which was then communicated creatively via an animation video and infographic.

Global data and market-by-market analysis estimated the cost to businesses of providing 16 weeks of fully paid leave; this was compared with the cost of recruitment and training to replace women who do not return to work after maternity leave.

We needed to ensure that the material worked effectively in multiple cultures; target markets ranged from New Zealand and the UK to Qatar and India.

Working within our budget, we generated 659 media articles (predominantly Tier 1) and 172 broadcast items within one week across 33 countries (including 17 Vodafone markets), reaching an estimated 268 million people (Meltwater Analytics) and 41m impressions.

The animation video received more than 1.8m views (Meltwater Analytics).

There were 6,039 original social media mentions and the video and infographic were shared on Twitter by Arianna Huffington, (1.8m followers), the Wall Street Journal (5.98m), Sky News (1.94m), the Financial Times (1.6m) and CNN (974k).

At least 90% per cent of consumers surveyed across four markets (OpinionMatters) said they felt more positive about Vodafone as a company and employer.

Social media sentiment analysis is 100% positive (Meltwater Analytics).

Vodafone achieved all of the above with just three in-house team members (one of them an intern) and limited support from Golden Goose PR.

The Vodafone team coined the term “maternomics” (also used as hashtag) to promote the company’s new policy and KPMG research findings. All material was localised via a global toolkit sent to each Vodafone market. This included translations of the infographic and 3D animation video which was created with embedded text rather than a voiceover for maximum visual impact.

The Vodafone HR director responsible for the policy – herself a working mother – was trained for broadcast interviews as was the company’s most senior executive in the USA (a country without statutory maternity leave and therefore a key target market for media/social coverage). Tier 1 outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, BBC, CNN and CNBC, were briefed under embargo with broadcast interviews aired on the morning of 6 March when the collateral was released to all outlets globally.

Turning a corporate theme into a creative, digital campaign is a new approach for Vodafone, with limited budgets currently assigned to this new form of editorial engagement.

The campaign was delivered for under €50,000. This covered all costs, including KPMG research, animation, storyboarding, production, editing and translations for both the animation and infographic. The infographic was created in-house and the animation was written and directed in-house.

Vodafone’s new global minimum maternity policy was an internal human resources initiative and – while strikingly progressive – was not publicly known.

The Vodafone Group External Communications team argued the case for a global PR campaign which would use the initiative as an opportunity to build brand advocacy among women worldwide.

We had two goals: to target female consumers; and to build Vodafone’s employer brand in support of the company’s objective to increase the number of women in its senior leadership team, yet this had to be delivered creatively for under €50,000.

KPMG’s research demonstrated that it would cost businesses worldwide around $28bn annually to provide 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave; however, backfill recruitment and training costs to replace women who leave after a baby costs around $47bn.

The net $19bn cost reduction underpinned Vodafone’s assertion that its new policy represented sound business sense and provided the peg for briefings with business, news and women’s editors and bloggers globally. The research also underpinned the supporting animation video and infographic.

The aim was to make as many people as possible aware of the policy through global media and influencer outreach, with a core objective to increase engagement and advocacy among women worldwide.