eircom

In 1999, eircom was sold out of State ownership by means of an Initial Public Share Offering. At that time, the company adopted its new name as well a new corporate identity. The intention was to clearly signal the company's move from semi-state status to that of a plc. In the intervening decade, the company has been sold to private investors, returned to the stock market, sold and re-acquired a mobile operator and in response to competitive pressures, the company developed a number of sales and marketing teams within the organisation. All this change happened under intense regulatory scrutiny. Unsurprisingly, the original corporate identity introduced to maximise the markets' responses to the IPO became fractured. This was apparent from its highly inconsistent application to a proliferation of product and service brands and sub-brands. In 2005, Image Now was commissioned to undertake a visual communications audit and revert with a strategy that would use corporate identity to maximum effect.   ∧

Image Now's strategic recommendations to eircom were shaped by two major considerations. The first was that the proposed identity needed to consolidate the investment in its visual assets, which had, after all, been relatively recently acquired. The second was that the proposed identity had to reflect the increased emphasis within the company, as well as in the marketplace, on mobile and new technologies to enable future growth. An identity that maximised the value of the existing one as well as making it robust and fit for future purpose was essential. Other requirements of this identity were that it would work across the increasingly numerous communications channels available to consumers, especially digital ones. The identity system also had to bring greater synergy across the business, promote cross-selling and quickly identify eircom as the pre-eminent communications company in Ireland.   ∧

Active in all aspects of communications, eircom produces a variety of materials for different audiences. Typically, if identity guidelines get too prescriptive, design work becomes formulaic, too loose and there is little consistency. In the interpretation and application of the evolved eircom identity the challenge was, and continues to be, the achievement of visual coherence while bringing the identity to life. Image Now has undertaken a wide variety of projects for eircom in the last few years from designing the site hoarding for the company's new headquarter building while it was under construction to the creation and production of TV ads that promoted the benefits of broadband at home. Image Now also developed distinctive signage and lighting installations for this new building, 1HSQ, along with the design of the telephone directory cover on an annual basis, new product launches and soccer sponsorship materials. While the applications are as many and as varied as the communications sectors in which eircom is involved, the corporate identity system has facilitated consistency while allowing for visual distinctiveness. As a result, eircom continues to hold its own versus some of the toughest competitors in the world.   ∧