Sensis reposition to focus on digital assets, introduces new logo known as Dash
Advertising and directories business Sensis has launched a new branding which it claims will highlight its “strong digital growth strategy” as it looks to move away from its print directories reputation and be primarily known for its digital asset, as it aims to be “the number one marketing services company in Australia.”
Sensis worked with brand consultancy agency Interbrand on the refreshed look, which attempts to place emphasis on the brand’s digital assets, including Yellow Pages, White Pages, TrueLocal and Whereis, as it claims to be the second largest digital media company in Australia.
“We have a significant print directory business and while that business is very important to us, what many people are not aware of is the majority of our revenue is generated in digital now,” said John Allan, CEO of Sensis.
“When you put all of those digital assets together, by our calculations that puts us as the second largest digital media company in Australia, Google of course is the largest.”
He also said Sensis’s online revenues exceeded those of many of its rivals, adding: “Sensis is generating more online revenue than Fairfax, than News Corp, more than Realestate.com.au and more than Carsales.
“Clearly our digital business is a fast growing part of our company and now represents the majority of the revenues of the Sensis business. Not to ignore our very important print business, but the growth engine of the business is the digital part,” he added.
The new look introduced today sees the brand adopt a new logo known as “Dash the mouse”.
“The new brand features Dash, which is the name we’ve given the mouse,” Allen explained, “Dash is just one part of a character set, he’s the brand for Sensis, he’s a metaphor for being agile, nimble, resourceful. He has a whole bunch of friends and characters that go with him.”
The characters are used to highlight different aspects of the Sensis brand, with Shorty the giraffe used to represent growth, while Micky the robot represents technology.
“The brand identity leverages the equity of Sensis’ consumer brands and positions Sensis as the leader. The instantly recognisable character illustration brings a warmth and human touch to our brand while being flexible, helpful and, most importantly, encouraging,” said Allan.
Allan said the company’s understanding of the small and medium sized business market puts it in a position “to help Australian businesses with their marketing needs”.
“Businesses need a partner that is able to deliver engaged customers to them, across a number of digital platforms and channels. That’s what we intend to be. We want to be simple to deal with, faster and continue to meet the needs of our customers in the evolving digital media market. We are investing heavily in this area to deliver our customers greater services and value,” he said.
The repositioning comes as print business models face increasing challenges as businesses and consumers make the shift to digital and online.
“The print business is definitely changing, we call it a two-speed digital economy going on. In Sydney, about 70 per cent of Sydney-siders start their search online and about 30 per cent would use a traditional print method like a print directory. But if we move into regional Australia, it’s actually the inverse,” Allan said.
“About 70 per cent are starting with a print directory and 30 per cent online. They’ve got access to online but they’re still using print as their local search product because online in some of those markets is not meeting their search requirements, they’re looking for local businesses and services and online doesn’t quite meet that expectation.”
Launched internally this week, the new brand will be rolled out across Sensis’ products and services over the coming months.
Miranda Ward
Love the brand refresh and the cute characters. Nice work.
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I’ve tried for about three years to get them to stop delivering the books. Nothing works. They go straight into the bin from the front porch. Such as waste of paper.
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bit childish? and haven’t they gone down this path before?
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… yes, that’s what i think of when I think of Sensis, agile, nimble and resourceful.
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Those must be the most ridiculous animal friends I’ve ever seen. Lizzie the multiple products and services octupus? JA, the only people you can fool are your investors.
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Ah yes the Mouse… too small to even be noticed now
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What happened to the sock snake? Did the elephant sit on it?
BTW surely the only way they can be the 2nd biggest dig revenue in AU is if they count print/dig bundles as dig or do some fancy allocations. Wonder where the costs of all those f2f sales ppl are?
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Great way to show case how SENSIS is changing
And moving with the times .
They really do understand small business needs.
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Not sure I would be comfortable claiming I am the second biggest digital media company in Australia when half of my digital revenue is actually reselling Google?
Anyone else smell a rat (mouse)?
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Good Point David McG….I mean Dave.
Dash is a great name, it describes what all the execs did when the writing was on the wall.
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Might be a problem with the elephant and it’s similarity with Evernote.
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Wouldn’t you update the website branding at the same time that you launch the new nimble branding?
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@Samara…..you are right you would…unless you hadn;t yet been able to remove a (broken) link to a business unit that ceased to exist 3 years ago (sensis digital media). Is this the advanced digital capability they sell to customers?
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If you need to cancel your Yellow/White pages – go here:
https://www.directoryselect.com.au/action/home
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Didn’t realise Sensis services and products were geared towards the lucrative, high disposable income toddler dollar???
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@cancel – i did this…hope it works…but for goodness sake it has a sunset clause and they re-start sending the bloody things in 5 years. Why doesn’t the spam act apply?
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I didn’t realise it was arts and craft hour??? About as useless and out of touch as the entire sensis business model.
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“New” direction
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Dash is a mouse. Mice are known to invade homes for food and occasionally shelter. Mice can at times be vermin, damaging and eating crops… Yup, sounds just like Sensis.
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Small business are more sophisticated than having little animal figures thrown at them. Poor delivery from a desperate company. There are larger and better digital marketing companies around offering a better solution.
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What a ridiculous number of characters. Half their staff won’t even be able to name them all. And yup, nothing makes me think sensis like the word ‘nimble’. I look forward to McDonalds rebrand next week with McHealthy the Rabbit
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“In Sydney, about 70 per cent of Sydney-siders start their search online and about 30 per cent would use a traditional print method like a print directory. But if we move into regional Australia, it’s actually the inverse,” – If John Allan & Sensis truly believes that 70% of regional Australians are starting the search for services in the print directory, no amount of re-branding will ever save this company.
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Really, infantile at best. What an absolute embarrassment to the company. Your clients are not in kindy.
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TV show Utopia couldn’t top this.
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Agility, Adaptability and Resourcefulness yet they couldn’t display the agility, and resourcefulness to change their website to reflect the new identity they have spent loads of money creating and sending press releases about.
Simple to deal with but they have 9 creatures to communicate this new simplicity, I would suggest the 9 creatures represent the silos within the organisation. Only generating more “digital” revenues than some of the others because they force customers to bundle products.
This press release with the statements suggests not much has actually changed still going on about being a digital business, read any press release from Sensis for the last how many years and you’ll find the same bluster about size and changing to digital and almost always it’s about how much money they make, very little about the value proposition or their market relevance other than to say we’re digital, we’re changing and we make lots of money.
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Sensis has been ripping off customers for years faulty systems over charging inefficient systems that make errors a nightmare to correct and sending everything offshore to make life even harder. Consumers these days have a choice better value and service exists everywhere. Bye bye senseless
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If I launched a small business, the last place I would consider advertising would be with Sensis. Certainly not in the YP and certainly not using them to buy my adwords / Google campaigns. Having said that I am savvy and there are many non-savvy folk who run shops, stores and businesses, who need help, so the reseller part serves a function. I still think you can run a business in 2014 without being in a printed directory. Perhaps mobility scooters might still gain a few sales…? Who knows? Reach Local are the other big player in the reseller space, so it will be interesting to see how Sensis go reselling. (Aren’t all the good ex Sensis people at Reach?) Do Google manage campaigns for clients directly, or do you have to be spending a certain amount to qualify for their direct support? Yodel, what happened to them? Didn’t they tarnish the Google brand, from their shonky sales practices? If Sensis can be credible, and execute campaigns properly, then there could be an ongoing, reputable a business for them, converting their database of YP clients and a proportion of their spend to Google. Many non savvy old business folk have grandchildren who are savvy and can set up a Google Plus page for them and hey presto, they are found when somebody Google’s “Florist Sydney CBD”.
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