Since the company was established in 1924, Telefónica has evolved to become one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators worldwide. The strong development of its combined product and service offering, its consistent international expansion, as well as the acquisition and incorporation of new brands to its portfolio over the years has led to a complex and diversified business model.
Consequently, Telefónica decided to reorganize its brand portfolio, evolving towards a simplified and consistent model that implies a clear role for each brand and determines the audiences to which each brand relates. The Telefónica brand would no longer play a commercial role in the consumer market: It would become an institutional brand and its commercial brands Movistar/O2 will embrace almost the entire commercial offering. With this simplified system, Telefónica could create synergies between its brands and its multiple stakeholders on a global scale.
As a fundamental basis of the new brand model, a strategic territory was defined for Telefónica which responded to the predominantly institutional role assumed by the brand, demonstrating its potential as a premier player on a technological, social and economic level.
In order to guarantee that the positioning and personality defined for Telefónica were aligned, a new visual identity was developed. The logo no longer manifests its former bright green color, highly associated with the technological world and a proprietary reference to a commercial mission. The Telefónica brand was re-staged as a white signature against a blue color field, to match its institutional role. The Telefónica photographic style became a narrative element where the key focal point, the earth and all that it sustains, is always viewed from an elevated visual perspective, demonstrating the corporation ́s capacity of transforming possibilities into reality.
Finally, it was necessary to focus on the brand’s strategic role to key institutional areas — the Telefónica Foundation, sponsorships, events and co-branding — to successfully elevate its new character and profile.