NBN ditches positioning and branding saying it ‘discouraged’ users from taking up the service
The National Broadband Network has ditched its positioning and branding after research revealed it “discouraged” users from taking up NBN services.
On Monday the NBN is launching the new positioning of “NBN: bring it on”, with a new branding which aims to create a sense of optimism and inspiration while it also aims to encourage people to harness their potential.
“At NBN we have been wrestling with the whole idea of do we need a prominent brand knowing we’re a wholesale organisation, or really can we continue as a project as we are at the moment,” NBN executive general manager of brand and insights Kent Heffernan told Mumbrella.
“We believe that new brand positioning, visual identity and new brand strategy can really optimise and make all of our communications moving forward more efficient.”
Created by BWM Dentsu, the new positioning has been launched internally to staff today with it rolling out across the website and other collateral from Monday with the marketing campaign to roll out in a few weeks time with a regional focus.
“Over the next two weeks we’ll be rolling out the new look and feel and then a week after that the comms will go live which includes TV, outdoor, cinema, radio, digital and below the line. We will still be geographically targeting areas which can get the NBN today or within the next 12 months,” Heffernan said.
The NBN Co has already rolled through two phases of its logo, moving from a logo with the name in black text with an outline of Australia next to it to a similar logo which saw white text on a bright green background.
On the changes Heffernan said it was important to signal the company was changing and growing.
“It was also to signal change, it wasn’t just about going hey we’ve just made a tweak here. We do actually want to signal that things are changing from an acceleration, from a rollout, this isn’t just another type of broadband, this is a major step forward in internet access for all Australians,” he said.
“We wanted to create that interest without having to spend vast amounts on a national marketing campaign.”
The NBN’s research suggested consumers felt the NBN was uninspiring and inaccessible, with some consumers also discouraged from taking up the services based on the branding and marketing.
“When we did a lot of research and asked Australians how they perceived the NBN brand we were seen as probably not-accessible, a little bit boring and could be a lot more desirable,” said Heffernan.
When pushed on how the new positioning and marketing will change that Heffernan admitted the company does not expect it to make a significant difference to sales.
“We don’t think that a new logo or a new visual ID is going to make a significant difference to sign up and sales, but having a brand strategy and a very clear tone of voice, very clear proof points coupled with a new media strategy which will include TV moving forward, will make every ad put to market more effective,” he said.
“It is really about underpinning and giving ourselves a design system and framework to ensure that everything we do works a bit harder.”
LAst September NBN appointed BWM as its creative agency.
Miranda Ward
What discouraged people from the NBN was News Corp and Tony Abbott continuously telling everyone we don’t need super fast internet, which is obviously a decision that we will look back on in 20 years and go “really”?
That said, I don’t mind the new logo, and the old one was uninspiring. It does looks a bit too much like the 2day FM logo though.
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as well as the fact that most of Australia geographically cant acess it !!
capital cities have a broad variety of choices, however once you get outside an 80km radius away from that capital city or metro area – there is nothing for rural townships
However if you live on a nice big hill somewhere you might…
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Instantly thought of this clip from Utopia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfTBdqF5Vgw
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I have the NBN. I got it because they were cutting off my phone and I had no choice. When it first became available I looked into it and it was too expensive compared to the data I was getting ADSL2. Since then prices have improved and now considering I don’t have to pay telstra for a phone line I’m up $10 a month and still have unlimited data. Why advertise? Was there an ADSL marketing campaign? Leave it to the providers to promote it.
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I’ve had the NBN for almost 5 years.
It’s always been a lot cheaper than the previous alternatives.
You can hardly blame a logo or positioning for the lack of take up when Telstra marketing sign people in roll out areas to new contracts in the months before change over. You can hardly blame the logo or positioning when the Murdoch press, Turnbull, Abbott and Co have been bashing it for years telling people the lie that it is too expensive for users and not reliable.
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Work a bit harder at what, exactly? Not sales. So what else is there?
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And they wonder why the budgets keep blowing out.
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er, does anyone think a new logo and strap line is going to change anything? How thick do these marketeers think people are?
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Can someone explain how this (the change from NBNco to NBN) can happen when we have had a company called NBN now since 1962 – a television network based in Newcastle, broadcasting to over 2 million people?
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“NBN, bring it on”? I wish they would. Under Rudd and Gillard the whole of Canberra was to be connected by the end of 2015. When Abbott and Turnbull came to power those plans were abandoned, and now on the NBN website under my suburb it says “There are currently no plans to connect your area to the NBN”.
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If they would actually put people on it that need to be on it instead of people that are already on fast internet.
Have spoken to so many people that have said they are on cable already and are being forced on to the NBN so they won’t see the benefit of the internet side… Even my inlaws who are on cable are being connected.
Stop doing the people on cable and do the people who can’t get internet or that are on ADSL.
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Not hard to blow upa heritage brand. SCA have done that to two radio stations. So rebranding NBN Television to Nine (which it virtually is) is not going to be too hard to achieve. It may be the reason NBNco spent so much in a rebrand was to acquire the name from Nine Entertainment Co.
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Ummm Alan – the reference was to the IT infrastructure project, not the TV station in Newcastle .
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The new logo suits Turnbull’s copper-based ‘NBN’ – the further from the node you are the weaker your signal will be
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Agreed. I think the Abbott govt. in opposition and tNews Corp did more to discourage users than any logo ever could. Once we’ve fully dismantled the original plan and privatised it completely we’ll see something finally happen.
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Interesting players in the rebranding for NBN – ex Telstra Brand Director, Heffernan & appointed agency ex Telstra agency BWM – what a love in.
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The problem wasn’t branding, it was availability and value.
Most the people who want NBN still don’t actually have access to it.
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Why spend so much money marketing to a captive audience? The marketing will go out to a huge number of people who want the service but can’t get it. Those in the NBN coverage area will be forced onto the service eventually regardless of whether they want it or not. The only alternative will be to lose their phone and internet access once the copper system is turned off in their area once a specific time elapses after the NBN rollout.
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Google ‘Telewest Branding’.
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