vivo: Staying Present Through the Pandemic

vivo brought Ruder Finn Era on as its PR and communications agency for a three month period from March to May 2020 to lead projects including the V19 launch. The timing could hardly have been harder. Myanmar's smartphone space was already highly competitive, and COVID-19 was closing events, distracting newsrooms and making product news feel out of step with the moment. The brand needed to make the most of media relations at exactly the point when conventional launch tactics stopped working.

Ruder Finn Era kept product launches at the centre, using earned and paid media engagement to give the V19 and other announcements the coverage they needed. But the team recognised that what would keep vivo in the news during a pandemic was not specifications.

CSR activities and announcements became the connective tissue of the programme. Donations to the COVID-19 response and extensions of consumer warranties for customers who could not visit service centres were communicated as news in their own right, giving journalists stories that mattered to readers and keeping vivo in regular contact with media while competitors went quiet.