How living ads helped Vodafone to bring the message of connectivity to millions.
Vodafone is the world’s leading cellular telephone operator, with more than 165 million subscribers globally. Their mission is to keep society connected and build a digital future for everyone. Vodafone brought an immersive exhibition to their Sook Space, to raise awareness of digital exclusion in the UK, connecting with people in an interactive gallery setting.
Connecting through images.
Vodafone has made a commitment to bridge the digital exclusion connectivity gap for over four million people by 2025, which started at the end of 2022, with a campaign to raise awareness of the issue of digital exclusion in the UK, bringing it to the forefront of people’s minds with their “Faces of Disconnect” campaign.
Partnering with world-renowned photographer, Ian Rankin, Vodafone delivered an immersive pop-up gallery experience in their Sook Space, featuring gallery display images shot exclusively for the campaign, helping people to connect with the project, and discover and explore what digital exclusion looks like in the UK.
A limited edition pop-up gallery
Vodafone needed a premium space that could quickly and easily be turned into an immersive gallery, for a limited amount of time, to maximum impact, that could welcome members of the press and public. The Sook Space in Hammersmith Livat was the perfect solution.
To create an immersive gallery experience, Vodafone simply uploaded their gallery content of images and messaging to Sook’s server, allowing them use the digitally-enabled large display screens facing externally to instantly brand the space to a Vodafone gallery, whilst simultaneously showcasing their Digital Exclusion gallery images on the large internal digital display screens, offering their visitors a truly immersive experience.
Vodafone ran an omnichannel campaign to promote their pop-up gallery, and invited members of the public and press to experience the immersive gallery, and to learn more about their goals of donating connectivity.
“Real-life events like the Vodafone x Rankin gallery at Sook give us the opportunity to meet with current and potential customers and share more about the aims of the organisation and its commitment to donate connectivity to 4 million ‘digitally disconnected’ people by 2025. Creating a pop-up gallery to showcase the Vodafone x Rankin images could not have been easier. Sook took care of all the logistics every step of the way, and the large digital screens provided the perfect blank canvas to highlight the ‘Faces of Disconnection’ project and draw attention to the very real issue of digital exclusion.”
Andi Donovan, Senior Communications Manager, Vodafone
The Sook space in Hammersmith benefits from 53,000 footfall every single week and went a long way to help Vodafone smash through their original goals for impressions during the single day of their pop-up exhibition campaign, with set up and take down of their immersive gallery completed in the time it takes to upload an image onto a screen – and no furniture to put together or take apart either! The Vodafone x Rankin “Faces of Disconnection” immersive gallery campaign was featured in multiple national and on-trade publications, as well as dozens of social media posts, further amplifying their message; helping them to reach new and existing audiences, and share the message of digital inclusion with more people.
