What it had to solve
Differentiate a contract-free discount telco whose real assets — online community, rewards, easy service — were invisible in a lookalike wireless market.
The idea
Make the brand mean its name: a design system of diverse, interconnected customer illustrations and a campaign called Public Displays of Affection.
How it works
Cossette built a new design system — logo, colours, typography and illustrations of Canada's diverse population, plus the tagline 'We're for you' — and launched the 'Public Displays of Affection' campaign across OOH, murals, online video, digital and radio in cities across Canada until 31 December.
What it did
No performance numbers in the source; the campaign was set to run across Canadian cities until 31 December 2019. Public points to its online community, rewards programs and contract-free plans as the behaviour the new identity now expresses.
Background
Public Mobile competes in what the brand itself calls an ultra-competitive wireless telco market, selling contract-free plans, rewards programs, easy-to-use service pages and an online community. When it worked with its agency of record Cossette to drill down on what the brand really stands for, the answer was its customers — so the answer to a new campaign turned out to be a full rebrand.
Cossette unveiled a design system that includes a new logo, colours, typography and illustrations representing Canada's diverse population, with a dynamic logo and the tagline 'We're for you'. Group creative director and head of design Luis Coderque said the identity 'brings back the meaning of the word Public to the brand' and that every element ties into its people-first strategy.
The first campaign under the new branding, 'Public Displays of Affection', is a warm and humorous showcase of the brand's love and commitment to its customers, running on OOH, murals, online video, digital and radio in cities across Canada until 31 December. Senior marketing manager Susana Gomes called it 'a simplified, mature and visually strong identity backed by a campaign that showcases our love for our customers'.
Why it lands
The wireless market was ultra-competitive, and another one-off campaign would not differentiate a value brand.
Brand research kept returning to the same core: customers, expressed in the community, rewards and contract-free plans.
The name itself was underused — 'public' could be reclaimed as a promise, not just a label.
A design system of diverse, interconnected illustrations mirrors the customer base the brand says it serves.
What you can take
A discount brand's cheapest differentiation is sincerity: rebuild the identity around what the company actually does for customers, then say it in the name.
Since then
The 'Public Displays of Affection' campaign ran in cities across Canada until 31 December 2019. The source gives no performance figures for the rebrand.
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