Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)

New:  Positioning, logo and tag line

Launched:  1 October, 2010 (date of first news release)

Story in brief:
This is now Russia's most valuable brand (so declared in the 2008 Financial Times/Millward Brown ranking, and confirmed by Interbrand in 2010).

But just four years ago, MTS (which in cyrillic is MTC) was one of four subsidiaries of Sistema Telecom. As such, it was assigned the red version of the egg symbol that Wolff Olins designed to anchor Sistema's color-coded 2006 rebranding (see 2006 review).

Evidently, the mobile child has outgrown, and has now consumed, its hard-wired parent – earlier this year MTS acquired Sistema (including its Comstar subsidiary ), and now is apparently the sole surviving egg. (For the time being, Comstar still signs itself with its blueWolff Olins egg, tightly locked however to the new mother-egg button.)

In 2009, the MTS management team had adjusted marketing strategy toward a "more open, technological and innovative" brand positioning. They then saw their 2006 egg identity as a problem, and commissioned BBDO's branding group to fix it. Creative Director Mikhail Gubergrits confirms that the Wolff Olins mark, originally intended to symbolize "simplicity and genius," was now seen "a bit archaic and flat."

The design solution – retain the egg, but replace its stark 2D power with "a high tech button, or computer icon." The new egg itself is very lightly modeled, with a touch of gray gradation. The MTC/MTS letterforms were "updated, becoming lighter." 

In some applications, the red button symbol can be used (with red letterforms) on a white or light background. The preferred version, however, puts the button on a rectangular red box, with reversed white letterforms – in which case the box itself becomes a predominant visual element.

The addition of a tag line, in English "a step ahead," helps to articulate the innovation promise.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Mikhail Shamolin
C.M.O. - Mikhail Gerchuk, Chief Commercial Officer
Identity design - BBDO Branding, Moscow

 

First Impressions:
Strategy:  A legitimate use of rebranding, to signal change. Beyond this, it's complicated (see below).
Design:  Can a mark be too bold, graphically too strong and simple? In my 2006 reaction to the Wolff Olins egg design I wrestled with this – and even more so later, when I was able to see it on signs and ads in Moscow. Because of its stark, flat white presence it was many times more vivid than anything around it. I thought "Wow - that's a powerful mark. But what is its relevance?"  (I can more readily accept "apple" than "egg" as a sign of genius.) Was it too powerful? More precisely, was its purely graphic power disproportionate to its content - a mere egg?                                                                                               
If indeed that was a problem, the new design softens it. Both visually and conceptually, the new mark is less intrusive – a particularly revealing illustration of the difference between 2D and 3D symbols. Where the 2006 symbol jumped out, the 3D symbol visually recedes into its background, becoming merely an object among objects. (And in this case, when it is a red object on a red field it is further camouflaged.) A 2D symbol is essentially a picture of an idea: it is conceptual, not illustrative. And a 3D symbol is trying – merely? – to be a picture of a thing. As very general rules: sharp-edged, high-contrast 2D is visually bolder than gradated 3D – and ideas convey stature more effectively than things.

To bring this full circle:  If 2011 is a good year for Russia's most prominent brand to recede a bit, lowering its profile – to be more about practical things than almost-spiritual ideas (less egg, more button) – then this is a creatively excellent rebranding.

Other Comments:
I can't help wondering if a name change might not have been considered too, to replace the inherent weakness of initials (moreover, in the case of MTC, initials that don't travel well) with a communicative name more global, unique and powerful.