Vodafone New Zealand is putting the power of choice in its customers’ hands for its 2022 network banner, the message that appears on top left-hand corner of all mobile phones connected to the Vodafone mobile network.

Originally just displaying “Vodafone NZ” to mark the carrier name, Vodafone first began changing the message on its network banner in 2020, displaying “VF Stay Safe” during the first Covid-19 lockdown. This then kickstarted a series of changes to celebrate our awesome nation including “VF Aotearoa” in honour of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, “VF Shot Bro” to support the vaccination drive, plus other language weeks including “VF Ni Hao” and “VF Talofa”, or “VF Namaste” for Diwali.

Now, customers and the wider public will be given multiple opportunities to suggest the new message that is displayed on phones, and also vote on choices for the network banner message for the upcoming month.

Rich Llewellyn, Head of Corporate Affairs at Vodafone New Zealand, says the customer response to the network banner changes over the last two years have been overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s awesome seeing all the support from our customers who’ve celebrated some of the moments that make our country great, and many New Zealanders particularly love to see their culture represented when we celebrate various language weeks.

“This year, we are giving our customers and staff a say in what can be displayed on our network banner – because we believe putting our customers and their values first,” says Rich.

Vodafone will be asking for suggestions via social media for network banner messages to display, starting in April 2022. Customers will then be able to vote between four suggestions, and the message with the highest vote will be displayed relevant time period in the coming month. For example, this may be “VF Bula” for Fijian Language Week - or changing the banner to “VF Pride” in February, which recently took place.

Rich explains: “We are hoping to see a continuation of support for cultural language weeks, like we saw last year, but also opening up the option to see other days/weeks of significance recognised.

“The catch is we only have eight characters to play with, so we sometimes may need creative suggestions to celebrate a certain language or moment in time.”

Vodafone customers can send in suggestions for an eight-character message via posting comments on Vodafone’s social media channels. These will be drilled down to four options, which New Zealanders can vote in via a monthly poll.

For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/vodafoneNZ/.