Case Study READY BUSINESS BRITAIN

2 Vodafone The Times, Times Online, Tablet edition CLIENT: CAMPAIGN DATE: PUBLICATION: CAMPAIGN ELEMENTS: READY BUSINESS BRITAIN

The world is in a constant state of change, 900,000 more new businesses have started in Britain in the past five years. London’s Tech City has grown from 250 businesses to more than 3,000. The appetite and entrepreneurial spirit is there for Britain to do business better. But to survive and thrive, businesses of all sizes need to be adaptable. Vodafone has a lot of experience in helping businesses be more flexible and responsive to the needs of the market and their customers. We therefore created a partnership between Vodafone, The Times and Sunday Times to produce insight, analysis and educational content that will help Britain’s businesses be ready for today, tomorrow, and for the next five years. THE IDEA “HELPING BUSINESSES BE READY FOR TODAY, TOMORROW AND THE NEXT FIVE YEARS” 3

4 THE CHALLENGE Ready Business Britain includes weekly features in The Times that help businesses be ready for the day and monthly interviews with successful businesses in The Sunday Times to inspire. These are complemented by bespoke supplements including the Start-up List (our ultimate guide to starting a business), and bespoke events including The Times CEO Summit, where prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne set out their business plan for Britain over the next five years. All our content, as well as videos and web-exclusive articles and insight, was housed on Readybusinessbritain.co.uk – a vital knowledge centre for businesses of all sizes and sectors.

5 THE CHALLENGE And we created Ready Business Mentor: a mentoring competition that helps five businesses to grow and succeed thanks to advice and support from Sophie Cornish, founder of Notonthehighstreet.

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THE EXECUTION 13 More than 100,000 visitors to the hub Total reach across The Times and Sunday Times: million 40 per cent of Times readers recall seeing Ready Business Britain content Tablet and newspaper readers are three times more likely to discuss Ready Business Britain with a friend, colleague or family member More than trebled the number (344 per cent) for Machine to Machine (M2M) communications And increased the number considering only Vodafone for their Mobile networks by 144 per cent. We are helping businesses become more flexible. In return, 87 per cent of Ready Business Britain readers believe Vodafone can help them to create a flexible, efficiently run business.

“I WANT US TO BE THE BEST PLACE IN EUROPE TO START, TO GROW, TO EXPAND A BUSINESS. I THINK THAT IS FULLY WITHIN OUR REACH AND THAT IS WHAT WE WANT TO DO.” – Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking at The Times CEO summit 14

All enclosed content created by Method, the strategic content agency for News UK. WHAT WE DO: Brand and campaign strategy, Media and account planning, Content creation, Video, audio, animation, articles, essays, supplements, magazines, journals and reports Design: Branding and co-branding, photography, graphic design, production services Social media management: Community, relationships, social content sharing SOPHIE RAPTIS Category Director, Finance and telecommunications Method at News UK 15