Vodafone introduced its new parental policy on Women’s Day in 2020. This made it possible for the Vodafone employee to take a 16-week paid leave if his/her partner is the one who takes the state parental leave. The opportunity was available regardless of the parents’ genders, and in case of adoption too.

Behind this policy lies Vodafone’s effort to give the same opportunities to everyone. The company wanted to bring attention to this new practice policy and raise awareness to the issues behind it like work-life balance, gender equality and family values.

A study shows that while Hungarian women often feel unnoticed and invisible in their jobs, men feel the same way when it comes to being part of the family.

To draw attention to this, we used something that means the same to every Hungarian people. Our very own language.

Since the Hungarian language does not have any grammatical gender, the third person singular „O” stands for both the English „he” and „she” at the same time. That makes it possible to talk about a person's achievement without actually knowing their gender. But unfortunately our brain works differently. When it comes to an achievement we tend to link it to a specific gender unintentionally

We used the letter „O” as a catalyzer of the whole campaign and challenged all the gender stereotypes that Hungarians generally knew.

We wanted to bring our message to an audience wide as possible, yet use high quality and authentic channels to maintain our credibility. The use of classic PR, some head-turning hacks and social media presence with a carefully picked pool of ambassadors were our tools for this.

We wanted to reach the 25-50-year-old white-collar employees who would benefit from the policy and open to starting a family. We wanted to let these people know that Vodafone not only cares about families but gives the same opportunities to everyone regardless of their gender. On the other hand, we wanted to influence those who are open to the issue of gender equality and open the great public’s eyes to the outdated and destructive gender-based preconceptions that still live strong in our society.

We hacked one of Hungary’s longest existing weekly magazine, called Nok Lapja (Women’s Magazine), with a cover advert converting Nok Lapja to Ok Lapja, meaning Their Magazine.

The word “O” got ads in the journal with sentences “S/he leads a company” and “S/he a pro diaper changer”. After the sentences, we emphasised that these people can also be men or women; one shouldn’t assume one’s abilities or goals by gender.

Personal messages were sent to journalists and influencers about their jobs or hobbies mentioning things that are presumably the other gender’s specialities. They got certificates like: “She lives in the fast lane”/ “He’s a caring parent”.

A press release was sent out and an event was organised with Hungary’s TOP30 women leaders, together they celebrated gender equality.

55 coverages were published in not just women’s, but general, economy and IT/tech news portals, reaching almost 13M readers and achieving a worth of almost 70.000 € media presence. This means more coverage, bigger reach and almost double the media value compared to last year’s campaign.

The social media activity of the 30 CEOs invited to the VIP event reached 200k users. Through them, we achieved credible ambassadors for our cause and made a high-quality presence.

The campaign didn’t only raise awareness of equality issues through the media but also strengthened Vodafone’s image in the human resource market.

The parental policy has become a common topic in job interviews and a great attraction for possible employees who plan on having a child. In Vodafone, 26 families have already decided to utilize the special opportunity.

Weeks after its lifespan, the campaign made into the curriculum of a titled Hungarian economy/marketing university.

Many civilian organisations shared the articles of the campaign on social media. One of them was Nyitottak vagyunk (meaning: we are open), a group founded by Prezi, Espell and Google.

2020’s O campaign became the most successful Women’s Day activity of Vodafone ever.