What do you think of the slogan ‘Rethink Possible?’ Kind of catchy? According to Ad Age, ‘Rethink Possible’ is AT&T’s latest slogan in a massive rebranding campaign they are about to undertake, starting today. The Rethink Possible campaign is already present on their website and television advertising will begin today during the Masters Golf tournament.
“It’s not going to be the old model that there’s brand work, and then there’s consumer work or enterprise work; it’s all ‘Rethink Possible,’” AT&T Senior VP-Brand Marketing and Advertising Esther Lee tells Ad Age. “All of our communications across all of these channels is ‘Rethink Possible’ and this integration of design.”
In addition to the new slogan, AT&T will update its logo to be the familiar globe only, minus the at&t copy. They also intend to use more colors than their familiar blue and orange.
Their strategy is to try to position AT&T as a lifestyle company for the digital age, enabling a digital lifestyle – not just another telecom company who competes with Comcast, Verizon and others. Lee tells Ad Age, it’s time to “…get past the competitive conversation and talk about what’s in it for the consumers.” Early on copy from this campaign seems to support this direction. On the new Rethink Possible microsite, AT&T says Rethink Possible is “…more than a slogan – it’s the expression of what we stand for. It’s what we strive to do everyday so you can stay connected to the people and things that matter to you most.”
Time will tell whether AT&T is successful in this strategy. They have a pretty decent marketing war chest to give it a good run – after all they are the fourth largest spending company in the U.S. on marketing.
Their overall strategy is one I advocate for with service provider clients in one of my day jobs as a principal with Pivot Group. Relative to positioning — spend more time and effort positioning your company as the best enabler of the digital lifestyle within your market. As more service providers reinvent themselves technically with FTTH and other broadband technologies, they have a great opportunity to also reinvent their brand, market position, and perception. Indeed, the timing couldn’t be better.
