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To coincide with the network infrastructural changes that they are undertaking, Airnet has initiated a number of marketing workstreams. Among these, Airnet has commissioned Tank to evolve and strengthen their brand into something that would offer the company a meaningful point of difference.
Right from the outset, the team at Tank advocated that Airnet should shift from a ‘me-too’ telecommunications brand into one that felt like a genuine challenger brand – a brand with energy and a willingness to take on the incumbents.
The cornerstone to the brand is a new value proposition that taps into the need of businesses and consumers – the need to remove the complexity that can exist in getting a fit-for-purpose telecommunications solution. Add to this their capability for easily-accessible, skilled support, their local sales and service team, and an established reputation for addressing customers issues, and the solution was obvious – Airnet. It’s Sorted!
A proposition of this magnitude hasn’t been entered into lightly, requiring a strong resolve within the company to deliver against this on every front. The company are scaling their customer service capability and introducing some exciting new products and pricing constructs – the first of these being FREE local calling for businesses on their ADSL2+ network. They are also introducing the Airnet Price Promise, offering customers total peace-of-mind concerning pricing competitiveness.
Airnet’s promotional activity will initially be focussed on existing customers and those that are in the vicinity of the telephone exchanges that Airnet are furnishing with their own equipment. As their capability becomes more widely accessible, so too will the scale of their marketing and sales efforts.
Having worked alongside the talented team at Airnet for close to a year, I can talk with some degree of authority that this is one company to watch as an emerging success story on the Hawke’s Bay landscape. These guys are ambitious and very passionate about what they do.
Check out their new visual identity below, and be sure to support a locally-owned and -operated company, one that will be the driving force in a faster and cheaper broadband service for Hawke’s Bay businesses and consumers.
Airnet – It’s Sorted!
When Steve in the office here became the proud father of a baby boy several weeks ago, the obligatory questions were asked and all but one answered. Baby was a healthy 8 pounds 11, mum was in good health etc. Yet, baby was to remain nameless for several days – not uncommon in itself. Then it struck me. The decision making process new sleep-deprived-emotional-wrecks of parents go through in naming a baby strongly parallel that of brand development. In fact, naming a baby is arguably the biggest branding exercise most will ever undertake.
Our entire decision making process is guided by association – the merits of each name are either quickly dismissed or considered to greater depth based on pre-existing associations. In consumer psychology we refer to this as Classical Conditioning which is well used by fragrance, alcoholic beverage and vehicle manufacturers. Names that are known to us we attribute personality and character traits without too much cognitive engagement, and so the process goes on until mum and dad finally agree on a name that neither parent can associate with a serial murderer, social retard or school bully.
Putting aside physical characteristics and personality traits that are a function of genetics, we as parents embark on building and managing perceptions to match the reality, and if the reality doesn’t stack up many proud parents will do their utmost to create a perception in the hope that it becomes reality.
We as brand builders and marketing professionals do essentially the same thing; apply a certain amount of science and pulling all manner of levers to sculpt desired identities and, like parents, manage perceptions.
Brand managers however, have the upper hand. An immature brand can be manipulated at the whim of it’s creators, a hormone driven immature adult, not so much.
In the spirit of Easter, here’s a little chocolatey typographical goodness that one of the Tank team members has been playing around with. Yummy.
I’m not one to remain quiet about local success stories, as I think they should be celebrated. Local woodfire manufacturer, Firenzo, is no exception.
Tackling challenges head on has been the key to their success – not only have they had to battle it with the advent of heat pumps, but there has been the central government drive to reduce carbon emissions, requiring a whole new level of compliance.
Despite attempts by the industry, no one had been successful in developing an insert wetback fire that was emission compliant, whilst still meeting the energy efficiency and heat-output standards.
For the team at Firenzo, this was red rag to a bull. These guys take design and innovation seriously, and having an in-house testing laboratory meant they were able to embark on a quest of cracking this challenge. The upshot is that they now boast New Zealand’s only emission-compliant insert wetback fire.
Proud of this achievement, Firenzo engaged Tank to develop a campaign that tapped into the demand that existed among those faced with having to give up their wetbacks in order to comply. The billboard creative is currently appearing in prominent sites throughout central Christchurch – one of the first areas in New Zealand to be subject to the new regulations.
(confessions of a self professed camera-nerd)
In 1944 Jennifer Land asked her dad a simple question: “Why can’t I see them now?”.
In most instances and impatient child would be politely dismissed with a quick lesson in waiting, but in this instance her question sparked the creation of a product that changed the way people took photographs.
That’s because Jennifer Land’s dad was Edwin Land – scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of The Polaroid Corporation.
Polaroid cameras exploded onto the market and by the time the curiously named ‘Swinger’ camera was released in 1968, they were an integral part of modern culture. Polaroid became an icon of the 70’s. Who hasn’t seen at least one slightly yellowed, fading shot of their big-haired relatives in bell-bottoms?
But with the dawn of digital, people lost interest in an imperfect image that faded with time and cost a bundle. Mr Land’s glorious cameras were packed away in dark corners of forgotten attics, only to be rediscovered by art students with a fondness for vintage. Film became hellishly expensive and difficult to find. Slowly Polaroid phased out each of its film types and in 2008 they completely discontinued film (a pesky little fact I learned about 20 minutes after buying a vintage Polaroid camera on Trademe).
With a disappointed sigh, I (and thousands of teenage camera nerds from art schools around the world) resigned myself to the fact that the days of Polaroid were over. The only film left was expired stock, selling at a premium on ebay and Trademe.
Until one morning I checked my email to find a message from my terminally-hip-Melbournian-designer friend, letting me know that a persistent little Austrian company called “The Impossible Project” had hired some clever scientists and figured out how to re-make Mr Land’s magic film!
With happy thoughts of shiny new Polaroid film in my head, I went home and started searching Trademe (hmm… third reference to Trademe in one post… obsession? Shameless plugging?) for possibly the sexiest camera ever made – SX70. It’s an oh-so-70’s tan-leather-covered-masterpiece, and I got one for a steal! A few days later the moment of truth arrived when I got my first two cartridges of film…
  
With a click and a whir that could only have been engineered in the 70’s a white-bordered picture shot out of my camera and for a few moments my life was complete! There’s something ridiculously satisfying about watching the image appear out of nothing, and more importantly there’s an element of unpredictability in what it’ll look like when it develops.
I think that could be the reason why I wrote this post! In a world of pixels, clean-cut lines and 3D motion graphics, I find delight in the unpredictability of analogue. Shooting on film, illustrating with pencils, and hand tracing type will often come out with a result that could never be created in a design programme. It’s not a cutting edge trend, and its not rocket science, but it is a way of adding something completely unique to a design, and when used right, it can really bring a project to life.
(this is the first shot from my new-old camera… its very over exposed, but I’ve figured out why and have a solution, hopefully my shots will get better with practice, 1 point to unpredictability!)
Lovely, simple design work from Studio Output:
“Pandora Bell is an artisan confectionery brand from the West of Ireland, practising under the philosophy that a high quality daily treat is healthier – and more satisfying – than a mouthful of artificial flavourings. We were asked to create branding and packaging to give their mouth-watering products the sophisticated presence they deserve. The resulting designs take inspiration from vintage food packaging and labels, giving them a contemporary twist through the use of different production techniques for the graphic components. The logotype, silhouette and patterns are used in varying degrees across the packaging, and executed in a range of finishes from foil to screen printing.”
The team at Tank have been working with ENZAFoods for some months now on reinvigorating Fruit Hitz (Fruit Puree) and developing Cool Hitz (Fruit Freeze). These products are the real thing in terms of ENZAFoods’ unwaivering commitment to develop a product that not only tasted great, but was also healthy – no preserves, no artificial colours or flavours, gluten free etc, etc.
The packaging design work that Tank developed was research led as was the product flavours and formula – extensive on the ground taste testing took place with hundreds of children around New Zealand.
I have had Cool Hitz in our freezer at home now for some weeks and they are a real hit with the kids – both products will be great as school lunch box fillers.
They are progressively being rolled out through Supermarkets, with Fruit Hitz having nationwide presence from Monday through Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths. Cool Hitz have been rolled out in northern NZ through Pak ‘n Save and New World and will no doubt start appearing increasingly down this way in weeks to come.
Check out packaging below;
 
Congratulations to Rod and his associates for undertaking the challenge to address New Zealand’s digital divide. As Rod has said to me, it’s not just about faster and more accessible broadband, it’s about addressing an alarming social and economic divide with the rest of the developed world. It will open up a gateway with the world unlike anything we’ve ever known.
We must take some pride in Hawke’s Bay’s involvement with Pacific Fibre. Rod initially shared his vision with me at Raffles Street Café, with a further meeting of founders flown in from each end of the North Island to little ol’ Napier. This meeting was to kick start the process of developing a brand of global proportions.
The combination of my marketing and telecommunications background, together with the design talent of the team at Tank Marketing, positioned us well to bring Rod’s vision to life. The team at Tank worked tirelessly in building a brand, proposition, and message construct that not only needed to have an excitement factor, but also install absolute confidence among business leaders, the investment community and government alike. This brand needed to punch above its weight!
Tank Marketing worked collaboratively with the founders in developing the story that is now manifesting itself in the media. Acknowledgement has to go to the team at Mogul who pulled together a temporary website in days (complete with blog). Rabbit and hat spring to mind – you guys are da bomb!
Being involved at such a formative stage, with numerous stakeholders spread throughout the country, not to mention tight timeframes, meant that we relied heavily on technology to aid our collaboration – what would we do without Google Docs and Skype? In 2013 we will without a doubt be asking ourselves what did we do without Pacific Fibre?
TV3 News Article
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