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BCE Inc. made a lot of inroads with consumers with its well-known ad campaign involving funny beavers, but there was one big shortcoming: They didn't speak business. The company is hoping its new campaign will redress that shortcoming.
Frank and Gordon, the animated beavers that fronted Bell's wares for three years, were dispatched back to the wilderness last week ahead of today's massive rebranding campaign by the nation's largest communications firm.
Frank and Gordon brought human scale and charm to a company that badly needed it, says Rick Seifeddine, Bell Canada's senior vice-president of branding.
But they didn't speak to corporate customers the way they connected with consumers.
“The beavers proved constraining as competition started to grow in ferocity around us,” Mr. Seifeddine said. “We needed a brand that could hold up all the time.”
The new marketing message aims to balance business and consumer needs with one consistent theme: That the company's technology, in some form or other, improves people's lives every day.
Beginning today, Bell hopes to reposition itself against formidable competitors in the wireless, TV, Internet and land-line market.
Its electronic and print ads will carry the tag lines “ La vie est Bell” in Quebec and “Today just got better” in the rest of the country.
The catch phrases change for different products. For example, a cellphone ad reads: “Long-distance romance just got better,” and an advertisement for Bell's high-definition TV reads: “Babysitting just got better.”
The varied phrases share the same backdrop of a softened and simpler Bell logo, usually fragmented, and a light-blue and white colour scheme. The formula will allow the company to pinpoint certain market segments while keeping an underlying consistency of message, executives said.
“We need to communicate to every segment of society,” said Wade Oosterman, president of Bell Mobility and chief branding officer for Bell Canada. “The platform has to be broad, clear, clean, concise and communicate what the organization does.”
The brand launch is meant to be part of a bigger story of Bell reorienting itself toward the market under the new leadership of George Cope.
As part of its effort toward simplicity, the company will change the names of its business units. Bell ExpressVu becomes Bell TV, Bell Sympatico changes to Bell Internet, and Bell Residential phone service switches to Bell Home Phone.
BCE has been running a teaser campaign for a week with posters featuring just two letters, “er,” a precursor to ads that will play with words ending in “er.” One ad for the Instinct touch-screen phone from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which launches with Bell today, reads, “Apple Eater,” in reference to Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Another reads, “Lattes and laptops just got together,” promoting a partnership that gives Bell Internet customers free wireless access in Starbucks Corp. stores.
The art of selling technology today is clarity and simplicity, Mr. Seifeddine said. “You have to bring it to a Haiku now. How is our PVR better than theirs?”
BCE is likely to spend up to $40-million over the next eight to 12 weeks to get its new message out, estimates Anthony Kalamut, professor of creative advertising at York University's Seneca College. He said the campaign shows that the company is serious about reform. “This is not a short-term fix. I think they've got it right.”
The new brand platform involved the brain power of four agencies. It was conceived by Zulu Alpha Kilo, a new Toronto agency founded by Zak Mroueh, who has created advertising campaigns for companies such as BMW, Nike Inc. and Pfizer Inc.
The Toronto office of Leo Burnett Co. Ltd., lg2 in Montreal and Bell's long-time agency, Cossette Communications Group, have worked to deliver the new message.
BCE, an Olympic sponsor, chose the start of the Beijing Games as its launch pad even before teams of lawyers and bankers determined the future of the company's $35-billion leveraged buyout. The long wait for “our stage moment” has been excruciating, Mr. Seifeddine said.
