Virgin Media O2

Virgin Media O2 has a legacy of customer-centricity, bred by strong brand positioning and historical investment in customer service and experience. In the past, any damage to that legacy has been quickly recovered with creative comms stewardship, but 2023 felt different in terms of the scale of the challenge.

Cost-of-living, rising inflation, mortgage affordability, public sector strain, and energy and fuel supply pressures all mounted to a full-scale customer crisis. As a critical connectivity provider to tens of millions of customers, Virgin Media O2 found itself at the coalface with general customer sentiment at an all-time low. With few commercial levers to pull (the business had applied above inflation price rises in early 2023), the Corporate Affairs (CA) team knew it had a mountain to climb to support customers in the way expected of the brand. 2023 was spent fearlessly fighting to promote and protect the rights and interests of customers, both as a genuine way to support in challenging times, and to prove the authentic value of the brand. Thanks to a diverse team of bright minds, 2023 was closed with the second highest Competitive Quality Index score among seven competitors in terms of reputation. More importantly, the team made a difference to people's lives, helping to connect 45k disconnected, change archaic industry practices and start a national fraud conversation.