Telstra changes colour
AUTHOR: Desktop
Telstra has announced its first major brand refresh since 1993 (when it transitioned from Telecom).
The ‘Life in Full Colour’ campaign has strayed from the traditional blue and orange logo and has introduced six colour variations of the very same logo – including blue, purple, pink and green. The campaign will be rolled out across all of its marketing material and will also include the launch of a newly branded website.
The campaign was developed by DDB Group’s brand agency, Interbrand and is a move by Telstra to modify its approach to appeal to a younger market. “We now live in full colour because we know you do. It helps make us more relevant to you and our life,” explains Telstra in the official video (watch it below). According to a report in The Australian the revamp took nine months, with a team of 60 people and budget exceeding $3 million.
Chief executive officer of DDB Group, Marty O’Halloran, told Campaign Brief, “Telstra is one of Australia’s biggest, most recognisable brands. Our challenge was to maintain that familiarity, while also encouraging customers to re-evaluate what Telstra is about. Aspects of people’s lives are not any one colour, so injecting the existing branding with a full colour wardrobe means that we can take the Telstra brand to customers in a recognisable, relevant and engaging way.”
Different logo variations
Watch the video below of Telstra explaining the reasoning behind the launch. Give us your comments on the identity below.
I saw the ad last night and LOVED IT!!!
Unnecessary. Would have been time and money better spent on increasing the competitive value of their products rather than their brand.
I like it.
Feels like Adobe Creative Suite or the recruitment agency ‘become’ (becomesydney.com.au).
I don’t get the “We can’t be human on our own” line at the end… can someone explain please?
This is absolutely awesome – about time things brighten up at Telstra… …for too long they have been lagging behind everyone with their dated and old material.
Well done guys! Can’t wait to see it out there and say I read this first on DT.
@Danielle: I will keep my eyes opened for the material – have not seen anything yet.
X.
It’s a marked improvement but suspiciously close to what 3 did. Same sector, same approach.
This is not re-branding, it’s just catching-up with trends.
And once again, Interbrand is selling the same old formula with a 6 colour palette and some white spaces in layout corners like they did with some other big companies.
Nothing exiciting here, really.
Immitation is the best form of flattery. Me smells a complete copy of the 3 brand strategy. How bout you spend another 3 million on being innovative.
This is a lot more effective and representative of the brand and it’s goals moving forward. Love it.
It may look better, but its still Telstra. Same bad customer service and the same crappy over priced products and services.
A vast improvement. I really like the advert, it’s a good idea to show the brand application on the staff lanyards too, a clever way to personalise the company.
I agree with Phil, “We can’t be human on our own” seems odd. I think I am equally good at being human when alone as well as in the company of others. Minor stuff though. I still like this.
The only way that Telstra will become human is to get rid of the computer answering the telephone and replace it with a real human. Talk and imagery is cheap (although not at a $3mil price-tag).
If Telstra live up to their promise and deliver what people hope for, they may have a fighting chance of renewal.
I think a logo update may have assisted. Out with the old Telstra and in with the new. That strategy has worked for banks.
Those who have worked with big brands know that to even convince a conservative client like Telstra to go in a direction as interesting as this is a huge achievement in itself. Well done Interbrand.
I think it’s really nice update to a brand that was becoming noticeably stale. Agreed there are similarities with 3, but it’s early days and to me this promises more. I’m not sure how well each “colour” will work in isolation. Part of the reason the examples here look good are because the different colours side by side working together and the rainbow effect. The signage they’re using in the NRL finals uses just the blue version of the logo, and isn’t as effective
I think that the brave step by Telstra (lead by interbrand) to a more adventurous brand identity should be commended. Anyone who has worked with large national brands understands the huge challenges that block real change or any effort to be truly innovative or ‘different’ especially in the telco sector.
While I don’t think that the revitalization is any huge step on a global scale and there are a lot of challenges for the visual identity ahead (the rainbow palette especially) , I do think there has been a real push for change across the communication of the brand which has seen a boring old giant wake up and realize its own potential.
3.5 stars
18 years ago FHA Design won a competitive pitch to rebrand Telecom and OTC into Telstra – name, identity, look and feel with a massive implementation roll-out. It still remains the biggest rebrand in Australian corporate identity history. I was the Design Director of the project leading a great team at FHA Image Design.
The brand program underpinned a comprehensive business strategy as deregulation required Telecom to enter into competition with a new player, Optus. A little known fact was the necessity for Telecom to contain the same graphic identity as the new entity Telstra during the competitive period when customers could vote for the telco provider of their choice. This enabled the marketplace to understand that Telecom and Telstra were actually the same, come voting time. The risk to Telecom of losing market share by either confusing customers or appearing to be an outdated offer were very high. The brand identity was required to reassure and at the same time communicate change.
At the time,the new Telstra identity reflected a new business positioning as the company changed to a singular monolithic brand incorporating their overseas service,OTC. The Tesltra identity resulted in some 200 of Telecom’s old product brands ( eg Commander, Mobilenet etc ) being rebranded as Telstra. Another insight into the rebrand was the observation by the CEO Frank Blount that when he traveled he would be meeting people from various Telecom branded communication companies. With the word ‘telecom’ becoming generic, it was difficult for the Australian business, known as ‘Telecom’ to express a point of difference.
The brand strategy developed by FHA Image Design was to incorporate the symbol “T” into both names enabling a seamless transition when when Telstra became the new formal entity. In addition, the design strategy of FHA enabled high level branding of buildings / phone booths etc. to utilise the symbol “T” which enabled significant cost savings when Telecom changed to Telstra. This is where design thinking adds considerably to brand effectiveness. The brand identity idea of “closer connections” drove the final design outcome, with a hand drawn font and the combination of the orange (which Telecom owned in the marketplace) and blue. The orange disc symbolised the new era of telecommunications and signaled that the old engineering mindset of Telecom was a thing of the past.
Interbrand’s striking enhancement to the Telstra identity really brings the brand to life in a inspiring way, as has been observed by some of the commentators.
It is a great example of identity matching contemporary mindsets, demonstrating leadership, expressing a spirit of pride and supporting the business messages that Telstra wishes customers and the marketplace to engage with. Congratulations to Interbrand on a job well done.
The Telstra rebrand sees the company use the power of identity to distinguish itself and infuse brand identity with its business strategy. In the same way that Nike, Mercedes Benz, Apple, Ralph Lauren and Coca Cola have taken identity beyond a brand, and into a lifestyle relationship with their advocates, the Telstra brand refresh has the same potent opportunity. Beyond the somewhat superficial aesthetics of image, it demonstrates that effective strategic thinking, and good design that stands the test of time delivers ROI. Its a proud moment when the originator of one of Australia’s iconic brand icons can see another firm build upon past success and continue to use brand thinking and great brand design to assist Telstra express its business aspirations. Evolution rather than revolution, that communicates to the customer, with responsible financial investment, is a great business outcome.
Richard Henderson
Makes me think of the fruity macs. Mmmmm, fruity macs…
I don’t believe a colour palette equals innovation. At a glance the idea, the seed of inspiration (or whatever you may like to call it) seems a little vague and dare I say superficial.
It really does remind me of Apple’s innovative product from the late 90′s only without the innovation. Is it relevant? Hardly. Does it matter? Probably not. There are other factors more important for Telstra to get up to speed and they have nothing to do with designers dreaming up colourful guff.
This is Telstra playing catch-up. And they are still way behind. It’s no wonder 60 people and 3 million dollars were needed to dream up this effort. There is very little substance to work with.
And we are fooling ourselves if we think that a colour scheme is going to help deliver a big ROI – as eloquent and persuasive as Richard Henderson may be it is indeed a tall order.
I will concede however that this re-brand is pretty.
THIS IS AN AD CAMPAIGN, NOT A REBRAND
It is a campaign idea executed through design. The fact that the media keeps calling it a rebrand is seriously worrying. If the industry does not understand branding, we are in trouble. Branding i smooch more than the logo, but by keeping the old logo tells me that they have not changed at all. They have just put a colourful bandaid over the top – i am sure I am not the only one thinking this.
We still have a Telstra fixed line and hadnt noticed the “rebrand” until watching the NRL grand final. 12 months – sounds like Claytons change . Absolute waste of $3m. Never liked the monolithic disjointed unfriendly crude Telstra logo from the beginning. The old Telecom logo was much friendlier and evocative. The monolith is still a monolith.
Bright shiny balls approach, they even used this song used by Sony for their ‘Colour like no other ‘ campaign for Sony Bravia from 2008 in their pitch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJmBdZ9czO8