Goldbug launches internal comms campaign for EE's 5G network

The participating employees were present at various events, recording and spreading the network's message, clearly visible so that attendees could ask them any questions they had. They were spotted recording Stormzy performing on the Thames, visiting press launches in six cities around the UK and manning the brand's staff games and celebrations.

The project launched on May 22 when EE announced it was going to be the first network to supply Britain with 5G network, which promises to radically improve speed, capacity and latency.

The core team of 25 '5G Makers' created a rolling stream of content for BT Group’s internal channels, heading out on the road as reporters to cover press events and customer launch activities, visibly on the ground in each of the six launch cities in the EE retail stores and head office sites.

Their presence helped the brand to capture content that was then shared with each employee, telling the story of the launch from behind-the-scenes. Posts on internal social channels totalled nearly 120,000 impressions during the campaign's period.

Lynne Arrowsmith, co-founder and brand director at Goldbug, created the employee comms and engagement strategy, said: “The internal launch campaign needed to feel as big and glorious as the external campaign. We wanted to move from adopting the usual senior executive spokesperson approach, to empowering employees from all teams and all levels of the business to tell the 5G story.

"Our '5G Makers' made the magic of 5G real for their colleagues by running demonstrations, answering questions, interviewing senior leaders and attending all of the media, customer and business events. Most importantly we asked them to become content creators – capturing film and images from their corner of the business to share across the internal channels. Employees creating employee-facing content felt fresh and unfiltered. This wasn’t a campaign created for employees, it was a campaign employees were creating in real time.

Content produced by the 5G Makers received a record number of comments on the post, with over 600 supportive messages from colleagues.

The campaign was accompanied by a leadership film and a 'Five Days of 5G' content ahead of the launch with competitions to build the excitement. This resulted in some of EE's highest-ever channel interaction with a video receiving over 24,000 impressions and a competition generating over 4,000 entries.

Since the success of the launch, the 5G makers have undertaken a bespoke training process where they can specialise in one of three areas. Content creators can specialise in advanced filming and editing; presenters can learn demo kit like a pro; and tech specialists be involved in carrying out live speed testing across the UK so that other cities can launch 5G.

Mat Sears, corporate affairs director at BT’s consumer division, said: “Our employees are playing a crucial role in the success of our 5G roll out across the UK. Empowering frontline teams with the knowledge and skills to talk to our customers about our network is a consistent focus for us. With 5G, it was vital that we build a campaign that told our story in a new way, with fresh voices to make what can be a complex technology real and accessible, for everyone across the whole business.”