01.04.09
So Very Different

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We’ve just been told we can talk about a huge project we’ve been working on in the States, for the huge telephony and communications company, Verizon. It’s not a name that’s well known in Europe but has 80 million customers over the pond in the States. (A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a workforce of nearly 224,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $97 billion).

After the recent purchase of Alltel’s 13.2 million customers in a deal valued at $28.1 billion, it was felt this was the perfect time to inject a bit of life into what was looking like a tired brand in a quickly moving sector.

From the start we were keen to reposition Verizon and help it adapt for 21st century communications. Its old look still looked like first generation telecoms, didn’t match with Verizon’s future ambitions and lacked a distinctive tone of voice.

Here’s the old logo, in case you hadn’t seen it.

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But customers no longer take heed of concepts of speed, or breadth of network - they just assume those as a given. The new idea stems from several directions, that everyone’s words, text and pictures let them share universal thoughts, together. In addition, we've been developing the crucial new concept of a ‘wireless cloud’ and that comes over most strongly in the new word-marque.

In a radical move the main marque has been redesigned...

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...but just as importantly this will be regularly truncated to a shorter, campaign mark.

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This allows us to quickly establish a versatile and unique tone of voice for the organisation.

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This is what Verizon themselves have to say. "We may have been considered out of the race when we were publicly mocked for having said no to Steve Jobs and Apple's iPhone, letting it go to AT&T," explains Kenley Mizrahi, Senior Vice President of Marketing worldwide, "but at the end of the day we still have the most costumers, and the ‘Very’ campaign is aimed at a million other potential customers by answering their most pressing concerns with a simple answer: Is Verizon a good value? The answer is yes, Very. Is Verizon easy to switch to? Very. Is it reliable? Very. And to sum it up, is Verizon awesome? Very."

Here are some of the initial applications of the work.

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The new identity will begin to be phased in starting in July, to coordinate with the launch of the campaign. By that date, all hardware issued by Verizon Wireless will feature the Wireless Cloud logo and one of the brand's most visible icons, the sign emblazoned across its Manhattan headquarters, will feature the new logo prominently for all to see and beckon the very best wireless communications provider.

There’s more information to be found at the pre-launch website, here.

And, although we’re not sure how they got hold of it so quickly, there’s a already a piece on US-based branding blog, Brand New, here.

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