Sistema Telecom

New:  Egg-mark symbol, and unifying sub-brand architecture

Launched:   10 May, 2006

Story in brief:
This is said, by its makers, to be Russia's first umbrella branding exercise, and it is a particularly clear and dramatic one.  Appropriately it's an egg, a friendly symbol of birth and potential. (And in Russia, I'm told, eggs can also connote leadership. Think Fabergé.)

AFK Sistema is Russia's largest non-natural-resources corporation, and 80% of it is a collection of some 50 communications companies with little tradition of collaboration and no sense of 'family.'  To manage them more efficiently AFK created the Sistema Telecom subsidiary in 1998, but until now it has remained effectively invisible in the marketplace.

In 2001, Sergei Shchebetov (MBA Stanford '94) joined AFK to head planning. He built a clearer strategic vision of a coherent multi-product telecommunication group leveraging common leadership, technology and communications platforms, and the determination to make it happen. In April 2005 he was assigned to Sistema Telecom as First Deputy General Director, launched a rebranding initiative, and in January 2006 he assumed control as General Director and CEO.

In August 2005, Shchebetov chose Wolff Olins to help him express, or rather to implement, his vision through branding. A new identity would be imposed on the four principal companies that he would use to redefine the corporation's composition... MTS (in Cyrillic MTC) in cellular, MGTS in wired lines, the internet provider Stream, and Comstar in alternative technologies like fiberoptics. (Later a fifth unit, Golden Line, would get its own egg and color).

Using solid squares, one for the common egg and the second for a unit name, Wolff Olins designed a graphic identity strong enough to tolerate color coding of the units without compromising the family brand. For marketing applications, the designers are promoting aggressive and playful uses of eggs both as a window for graphics, and as  three dimensional objects.

Shchebetov summarizes his intent: "Our new brand symbolizes unity, reliability and trust. It represents perfection, novelty and expectation of a miracle. And most importantly it means potential -- the potential of our companies, our experts, the Group as a whole.  In practice, the uniform brand is called not only to unite the companies inside the Group, but also to present us to the market in a new fashion."

Credits:
C.E.O. -  Sergei Shchebetov, General Director
Dir. Marketing & Brand Management - Irina Schwarzburg
Identity counsel and design - Wolff Olins, UK;
Derek Zee, Account Director
 

First Impressions:
It is a strong mark, and a very strong branding structure. It should work well to support cross-selling, which Sistema calls quadruple play services (or four play). 

The first Russian brand umbrella, though? How quickly we forget the ultimate umbrella brand, the hammer & sickle.  I guess Russia has gone to the other extreme,  celebrating private ownership with legions of logos. Branding in Russia will gravitate, as elsewhere, to the level where the best decisions are made and owned; that is where the relevant institutional brand properly lives. Sistema's egg is a step in that learning process.

Other Comments:
Design Maven (Frank Briggs) quickly cited Paul Rand's egg poster for the 1966 Aspen Design Conference. This proves once again that (1) no good graphic idea can be truly new, and (2) great minds think alike.

Nele & Tom Vanderbauwhede: We're not really enthusiastic about the design. We have the feeling that the egg is too big or the square too small. And also, they really need the colors to make the difference. The brand structure is strong, the campaign even stronger. For us it proves that it's not only the logo that creates the visual identity.