UK MNO Three has decided it has ‘come of age’ now that it’s 18 years old and is celebrating with a new ad campaign showing some of the stuff you can do with a phone.
It’s not so much a rebrand – the ‘3’ with flamey jagged lines logo is unchanged – as a new ‘visual identity’, whatever that means. Once you go down the marketing rabbit-hole things quickly get arcane and there is talk of ‘positioning’, warmer colour schemes and OOH. The resulting ad campaign apparently marks a change of direction for Three, although it’s still trying to flog mobile connectivity services at the end of the day.
“At Three, we’re investing millions in our network enabling us to support our 9.3 million customers day in, day out,” said Three UK Marketing Director Aislinn O’Connor. “We know that network performance is the most important thing for our customers and this will be reflected much more prominently in our marketing as we show how we can enhance their lives by connecting them for the moments that really matter. Our new brand platform embodies the strength of our network and how we can provide better connectivity every day for every customer.”
It must be tough doing the marketing for operators. They’re essentially utilities, but connectivity is a more complex commodity than water or electricity. That said, we would find it odd if power companies created ad campaigns featuring footage of people using toasters or turning on lights, so it’s not immediately obvious why telcos persist with the aspirational, lifestyle approach. But then who are we to second-guess the wisdom of marketers?