The VERBUND Brand - Powered by Water

Following a yearlong branding process, VERBUND is presenting itself as a strongly future-oriented brand – with a clear brand profile and a new appearance that the company has revamped in collaboration with the partners Brainds (corporate design) and TBWA\ (advertising).

Based upon the company strategy that was reworked in summer 2009, in which VERBUND clearly positioned itself as a leading hydropower corporation, a company-wide process was launched to define the brand profile upon which all areas of the company are oriented. In the process, the focal point is the striving for top ecological and economical performances for all value-added steps of electrical energy in order to generate added value for customers, property owners, employees and business.

Special importance is given to hydropower, which forms the backbone of the company. Beate McGinn, head of communications at VERBUND: “As a logical consequence of the brand profile, a central role in the communication is also given to water and electricity from renewable hydropower generated by and for responsible people. 90 percent of our electricity is generated from water; our household customers receive electricity derived 100% from hydropower. Water is therefore the focal point of the marketing campaign and the corporate design equally reflects the value of water.” Parallel to the VERBUND branding process, an independent identity is being developed for the grid subsidiary Austrian Power Grid – for reasons of the greater decentralization decreed by the EU.

Brainds and TBWA\ create the new VERBUND look
VERBUND commissioned the agencies Brainds and TBWA\ with the creative implementation following a two-stage advertising pitch. The new corporate design was created by Brainds. Brainds is Austria’s leading branding agency and has been awarded with numerous international design prizes. “The corporate design 'translates' the VERBUND brand strategy, makes this rationally, emotionally and culturally tangible, and is the first step toward successfully implementing the VERBUND hydropower brand.
With a confidently minimalist appearance, the company underlines both its claim for leadership and its international importance,” says Peter Deisenberger, managing director of Brainds. The reworked logo is a pure word mark of the name that has been anchored with a high degree of awareness for almost six decades. Maintained in a specially defined deep blue, the lettering is based upon the “DTL Prokyon” font designed at the turn of the century by Leipzig typographer Erhard Kaiser. What makes this special is the greatly reduced form, the good legibility and its guaranteed recognition. The implementation of the new corporate design has already largely been completed; the design of the buildings at all VERBUND sites will takes place within the next two years.

Particularly striking is the new VERBUND advertising that has been developed by the TBWA\ agency. The focus of the campaign in the print media, TV and online media focus is on the energy source from which VERBUND generates clean and therewith valuable electricity for Austria: "This creates electricity from hydropower" is the campaign's positive message.

TBWA\ therewith puts the focus on the testimonial that best represents the performance of the VERBUND brand for Austria’s future: namely the water itself. For the launch of the campaign, a 45-second-long TV spot shows how water affects our life. From an aid to waking us up in the morning right through to the relaxing bath in the evening, from a heartwarming view of a lake or river through to a homemade water wheel on a stream: in a touching and humorous manner, the spots – like the entire campaign – show how water affects our life. VERBUND uses this valuable element to generate valuable energy. The key VERBUND message: Generating electricity from hydropower means transforming water into clean energy for our future.

Christian Schmid, Managing Director of TBWA\: "The campaign gives the VERBUND enterprise the importance that it deserves. And, with its choice of thematic and the striking, independent optic, it manages to affect people."