Press facility tour highlights Virgin Media O2 sustainability goals

The Brief

As part of its Better Connections Plan, Virgin Media O2’s environmental, social and governance strategy, the business has committed to enabling its customers to take 10 million circular actions by 2025, in addition to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040. The business set out to uncover what was holding people back and we discovered that one in four Brits were unsure what happens to their devices when they get recycled.

The Activity

We partnered with the company’s recycling facility, Ingram Micro Lifecycle, to take media and influencers behind the scenes, demystifying the recycling process to encourage more people to recycle old devices.

Reporters from Evening Standard, Sky News, BBC Look East and Computer Weekly attended and covered the facility across broadcast, online and print.

The campaign went beyond traditional media, including attendees from the UK’s biggest consumer website Money Saving Expert and analyst house CCS Insight, helping us reach even more consumers and industry stakeholders.

Since the tours and subsequent coverage, the number of devices recycled has continued to increase, with Virgin Media O2 projected to hit a major milestone of nearly 4 million devices in the first quarter of 2024.

The Impact

Reinforced Virgin Media O2’s position as industry leaders in the circular economy through the work done via O2 Recycle

Secured coverage in top-tier national, business and trade outlets including Sky News, Evening Standard, BBC and Computer Weekly, reaching more than 15 million readers/viewers with our key messaging around the importance of recycling and refurbishing mobile devices

Supported in increasing the number of devices recycled to nearly 4 million devices (as of March 2024)

Moved the needle on number of circular actions completed by Virgin Media O2 to 2,438,794 (last reported in June 2023) out of the overall goal of 10 million circular actions overall taken by customers by 2025

Simon Feldman, ESG and DE&I Communications Lead at Virgin Media O2

“From the very first discussion about creating a media tour of our O2 Recycle factory to the fantastic, quality media coverage secured, Missive has been instrumental in the success of our campaign to highlight Virgin Media O2’s role in tackling electronic waste and driving the UK’s circular economy.

“Missive’s client and project management skills are hugely impressive – they helped to organise a slick and engaging media tour, provided excellent counsel, and helped to navigate numerous stakeholders, while using their media relations to deliver top tier results . I’m truly grateful to have worked with the agency on this important project.”