Make Possible
Etisalat → e&
Purpose
- Transforming organisations
- Building brands
What we did
- Brand strategy
- Brand architecture
- Naming
- Visual identity
- Verbal identity
- Experience
- Campaign
Etisalat was founded in 1976 as the UAE’s national telecom company. Over 45 years, it had grown to serve 160 million customers in 16 countries with an annual revenue of $14 billion. But during the past decade, telcos have been under perpetual pressure. The rise of global technology giants has pushed these once-influential brands into the margins of our minds as they find themselves ever-diminished to utilities companies. With Etisalat, we saw an alternative future.
Business transforming brand transforming business
From listening to Etisalat teams and leaders around the world, we created a new brand strategy and identity to signal the ambitious revolution from telco to techco. A new holding company with five business pillars are connected by name or endorsement to unify the portfolio and stream equity up to the group.
The name ‘e&’ harks back to the past and calls to the future. The ‘e’ retains the heritage and history. The space beyond the ‘&’ is left unwritten. Like the future, it is each of ours to create. In our pursuit of simplicity, the name became the icon, became the campaign, became the brand.
A bold strapline embodies a new culture, a new mantra; ‘make possible’. It’s a call to do what hasn’t yet been done and to empower people, everywhere, through technology. We unrolled ‘make possible’ into a new Employee Value Proposition for e&’s 43,000 staff and its future team members. A multi-media campaign launched the brand to the UAE and the world.
Striding into a great wide open future
Since launching in February 2022, e& has become the largest shareholder of Vodafone. It is now a lead sponsor of Manchester City and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where the new brand strategy maximises return on marketing spend. e& has solidified new major partnerships with Meta and Microsoft. While the brand continues to be rolled out across the business, it has helped reposition this flagship of the UAE and propel it into the next 45 years.
