Ben® is a mobile telecom provider. Fifteen years ago, mobile phones were only for businessmen. Ben® made it possible for everyone to be always connected. But now that we are, Ben® realized how lovely it could sometimes be, not to be.

Ben® says: You don’t have to be always connected just because it’s possible.

You’re connected because you want to be. There’s so much more to life than staring at that little screen.

On TV, Ben® introduced a revolutionary idea: Your mobile’s OFF switch.

Then we introduced the phone-free Sunday PR activation.

A stimulus for a national discussion about today’s connectivity.

A week earlier, with #benevenuit, we persuaded influentials to post varying opinions on Twitter. With Ben® we merely facilitated the ongoing discussion by delivering the right content and tools, making it easier for people to share. It was just before phone-free Sunday, with the current discussion well underway, that we approached the press.

With phone-free Sunday we succeeded, in just eight days, in cranking up a national discussion. Firstly, we used new media: trending topic and thousands of posts, then in the final phase with extensive coverage in the national press.

It was the right subject at the right time. #benevenuit reached more than 5.5 million people. With a PR value of €1,028,145 we demonstrated that we know what’s going on in the Netherlands. And how phone-free Sunday inspired both the press and the public to have opinions, and share them with one another.

Phone-free Sunday was introduced on 17 February and implemented on Sunday, 23 February 2014. The decision to go public eight days beforehand was a practical one: because we’d only decided to organise it two weeks earlier.

We decided to work as one team, ignoring the boundary between client and agency. We added social media and PR experts from the core team. There was one focus: facilitating the dialogue on social media and then the media itself. All in one week.

Non-stop content that people could share was created. We engaged our network and asked experts to relate their experiences of today’s connectivity. We relayed their tweeted quotes to the press.

Quickly launching a theme like this on social media is difficult, but with the right people we succeeded. Deciding to approach the press at the last-minute also paid off; media communication took off during the last two days.

Within eight days the thinking behind phone-free Sunday was turned into a national conversation piece, thanks to: #benevenuit, the website and the use of PR.

In no time we succeeded in starting up a hot topic of conversation. Firstly, through new media: trending topic, thousands of posts and reaching millions of people. And finally with extensive national press coverage.

PR value

Total print PR value €155,770

Total online PR value €629,410

Total RTV media value €242,965

Total PR value €1,028,145

(see attachment: publicatieoverzicht-Benevenuit.pdf)

Social media

Social media reach: 5.5 million people

The results were calculated by Coosto

We put the hash tag in a query and closely monitored it.

The number of tweets was counted and the cumulative reach (total impressions) was thereby obtained.

Budget of the entire project €45,000

The total PR value achieved €1,028,145