2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

Spectranet approached us to review its brand, proposition and visual identity, resulting in the launch of Spectra. Spectra is India’s only end-to-end Optic Fiber Cable (OFC) based ISP, serving both home and business customers. It is rated by Netflix as India's fastest fiber broadband provider. The former brand identity was a mismatch between the company’s look and its forward-thinking ethos, nor its position as a challenger brand in the marketplace. The company’s ambitious and young leaders envisage an unprecedented future for India, and enormous potential for broadband services in the world’s largest democracy. In their quest to improve broadband services, they were well placed to demonstrate that the company is focused on customer needs’ both now and in the future.

Describe the creative idea.

Indians are internet-hungry, but the average internet speed is 4.1 Mbps and only 2,800,000 people in India have access to a high-speed fibre optic connection. The marketplace had been dominated by big players, and services were not always the most user-friendly.  We worked collaboratively with Spectra’s owners and executive leadership team to co-create an approach to re-thinking the brand and organisation. We used methods most advanced US West Coast tech players are familiar with, deploying design-thinking and ethnographic research. In practice, this meant in-depth analysis of understanding the Indian customer (retail and business) and the role the internet could really play in their lives. For example, we found people did not understand speed or technical jargon – and became frustrated when they couldn't stream their favourite show or work efficiently. There was an opportunity to create a cut-through brand focusing on consumer needs and one that humanized technology.

Describe the strategy.

The strategy, brand and creative execution, all needed to communicate the brand’s evolution; the company’s expansion across several cities and to stand out as a fresh challenger. Over 11 months, through a series of working sessions with the client we covered a range of areas, such as road testing the future, designing the brand, and re-imagining the service-design experience. Within the first few months, we suggested that the name should be changed to Spectra to indicate the future direction of the company to provide more than just 'Internet'. The business was creating a number of partnerships, expanding its service range, for example, to content providers and Wi-Fi hot spot services. The new brand signifies both behind-the-scenes systematic processes, changes, improvements, enhancements and an outward-facing and genuinely customer-centred experience. In effect, this is the start of a shift from an engineering and product mindset to a marketing and customer-led focus.

Describe the execution.

The new design needed to be functional and stylish. It also needed to embody the disruptive spirit of the company. We designed an iconic typeface in collaboration a prestigious typography studio The typography takes centre stage, so that the brand can stand out and speak to customers in a recognisable, bold and singular way. We subsequently defined a tone of voice articulating the attitude, confidence and irreverence of the brand and its community - with headlines that subvert accepted language and functional copy that is unapologetically playful. The result is a very crisp, clear and sharp brand identity. We created the UX and UI experience to simplify the sign-up process, consolidating the brand to operate on only four behaviours; testing and fine-tuning thinking, and launch planning through to product naming and categorisation. We were able to push the creative boundaries to an extent that the Indian market hadn’t seen before.

List the results.

Since its inception, the new brand has had tremendous success in the market, resulting in increased awareness and consideration amongst both B2B and B2C audiences. Our service design approach already showed an exceptional increase of Spectra's NPS resulting in increased loyalty; mitigating the high churn rates in the Indian market: A sales pitch around pricing became a conversation around quality. The newly developed website helped customers to easily find and sign up to the right product; resulting in Spectra's revenue increasing during the last year.