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brand launch |
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EVENT AT A GLANCE
Objective: Support efforts to become a top 10 global telecommunications provider by rolling out a unified brand.
Strategy: Build awareness and
understanding of the brand with four simultaneous launch events in four Middle Eastern countries.
Tactics: Coordinate live, simultaneous rollout events with a satellite presentation between site managers and the Zain Group CEO to demonstrate the unity of a boundary-free global brand.
Results: Zain successfully executed the events for 12,000 attendees,
and paved the way for a 14-country African launch 11 months later.
The company’s 2009 first-quarter revenues were up 25 percent over first quarter 2008 to $1.96 billion.
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 lancing over the Fortune 500 list of the world’s largest telecommunications companies reveals a host of familiar players. Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Corp. top the list, totaling combined annual revenues of more than $200 billion. But as we inch closer to a new decade, a little-known Middle Eastern telecommunications provider has transformed itself into a global conglomerate in just five years, and is working feverishly to join that elite list.
Mobile Telecommunications Co. (MTC) started as a single-country operator in Kuwait in 1983. For almost 20 years it remained a local provider, with slightly more than 500,000 customers. But in 2002, ambitious entrepreneur and now CEO Dr. Saad H. Al Barrak assumed leadership of the company, and quickly reshaped it into a regional powerhouse through acquisitions in Jordan, Lebanon, and Sudan, and an aggressive expansion to Bahrain. By 2007, the acquisition of major African telecom provider Celtel International expanded MTC operations to 20 countries across the Middle East and Africa.
That same year, MTC announced that it aimed to acquire 70 million customers and become a top 10 global telecom provider by 2011 through continued expansion and acquisitions. However, MTC faced a major problem in carving out a spot on the global telecom scene: Its numerous acquisitions left it operating under a host of brand names, and not a unified force ready to take on the likes of AT&T.
To reach these ambitious targets, MTC leadership recognized the need to bring operations across countries and continents together under a single brand. “We wanted to be a global company and a top 10 operator,” says Antoine Aboukhalil, the company’s group media and external communications manager. “We knew that we needed the synergy of one brand to support this target.”
One Brand. Many Cultures.
Research and employee feedback led to a new name, “Zain Group” chosen for its easy pronunciation, memorable nature, and positive connotations. (Zain means “beautiful,” “good,” and “wonderful” in Arabic.) The accompanying brand slogan, “A Wonderful World,” reflected the company’s desire to promote an uplifting global message to an area of the world where many people face hardships like unemployment and sub-standard living conditions.
For the company, Aboukhalil says the advantages of becoming one brand were numerous, including shared marketing and technology, a common Web site, and a unified public persona. But rolling out the new brand wouldn’t be as simple as some new signage and a press release. The soon-to-be Zain had a multinational audience, multinational staff, and, of course, multinational media to introduce to the brand, bring on board with its message and mission, and convince that it was ready to be a major, global force.
Cultural and operational differences across the countries in which Zain operates required a systematic approach to the brand introduction. To demonstrate the company’s commitment to becoming a global, boundary-free brand, Zain leadership decided to introduce the new, unified company not with a series of individual events, but rather with simultaneous brand-launch events in four countries. This would enable attendees in each country to come together live via satellite for a presentation on the new brand by Dr. Al Barrak and the general managers of the four sites. The simultaneous events would also be held three times, targeting each of Zain’s audiences: once for employees, once for VIPs and company stakeholders, and once for the media. Zain selected four countries that shared similar cultural values and close operational ties as the locales in which to launch the rollout: Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, and Sudan.
Aboukhalil says Zain leadership hoped to convey several key messages to each audience regarding the company’s reasons for rebranding. Foremost, the rebrand supported Zain’s business goals of becoming a unified global presence in the telecom industry. In addition, operating under a single name across continents was key to promoting the boundary-free image of the company’s One Network, a service that allows mobile-phone users across Africa and the Middle East to move throughout the region without roaming fees or charges for incoming calls.
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A Wonderful World
To introduce its new brand — Zain Group —
Mobile Telecommunications Co. used satellite
technology to broadcast a live, seamless presentation across four key markets in the Middle East.
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Four countries with similar cultural
ideals
were selected for the launch event.
 Kuwait
Bahrain
Jordan
Sudan
12,000 ATTENDEES
Local dancers were on hand to lend a
touch of cultural authenticity to the events.
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Attendees at each location encountered a room with a large presentation screen and tables and chairs decked out in white linens.
A crucial component of the rebranding effort, the Zain Group logo was prominently displayed at each event.
 The seamless live presentation concluded with an address by Zain Group CEO Dr. Saad H. Al Barrak.
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Beyond just business, Zain would educate attendees on the brand values, which emphasized a meaningful, human relationship with consumers, a revolutionary step in a region where telecom services are primarily cost driven. In the same vein, leadership would highlight that unifying its operations was symbolic of the company’s commitment to creating a “global family that improves lives through communication,” Aboukhalil explains.
Eager to begin the rebrand as quickly as possible, Zain gave New York-based global event-marketing agency Jack Morton Worldwide a daunting timeframe to plan and execute the events — just 65 days. “We needed to launch a brand simultaneously across four countries, and bring the MTC brands together as one viable, consistent brand for the company’s employees and customers,” says David Zolkwer, creative and board director for Jack Morton. “This was the start of a brand that ignored geographic boundaries, and we wanted to express the new company’s personality, identity, and values to each of the three target audiences.”
Global but Local
Under immense pressure, Jack Morton took a team approach to executing the events. A core team based in Jordan partnered with Zain leadership to develop brand messaging, provide design plans for the four venues, and construct the satellite presentation. Meanwhile, Jack Morton deployed one team to each country to pull together the event venues and itineraries in collaboration with local Zain representatives.
“We established our Jordanian location as the hub of our development work and satellite broadcast. The core team spent the pre-production period there establishing messaging and design strategies, which were then distributed to the other locations,” Zolkwer explains. “This was the most cost effective route to take (one designer versus four), and was also pragmatic because we were still learning about the brand look.”
While the core team supplied satellite presentation content and venue designs to ensure consistency, the teams in each country had significant freedom in planning the remainder of event details. “Aside from the satellite broadcast, local teams were free to design their programs to suit local market requirements and available resources,” Zolkwer says. For example, to hew to common values in the regions, female members of dance troupes recruited from Lebanon to perform pieces reflecting Zain’s core values (heart, belonging, and radiance) dressed conservatively to meet mores in the predominantly Islamic countries.
Since attendance was mandatory for Zain employees at each location, pre-event communications were simple. VIPs received a mailed invitation with details about the event, and event representatives contacted media outlets to ensure press attendance. In addition, Zain began to tease the brand evolution to the public pre-event through television and print advertising in the four launch countries, which also helped pique interest about the new company. The ads featured Zain’s colorful new brand logo, a swirling teal and purple circle, and introduced the new global slogan, “A Wonderful World,” and the newly established www.zain.com Web site.
The first round of rollout events, those for employees, kicked off on the evening of Sept. 7. While local flavor provided by regional dance groups and area musicians was the order of the evening, event design and brand presentation reflected the consistency instilled by the Jack Morton core team.
From the reception, attendees were ushered into auditoriums for the highlight of the evening: the satellite presentation. Local television personalities led countdowns across the four sites to the point when the live satellite broadcast then linked them together on the big screens, symbolically marking the company’s transition from a mix of former identities to a united, single brand. “This was really the heart of making four different brands, in four different countries, with four different cultures, feel like one,” Zolkwer says.
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 Bridging the Global Gap
On the heels of the successful brand rollout in the Middle East, Zain Group targeted 14 African countries and repeated the live,
simultaneous satellite presentation.
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The second rollout occurred
across 14 African countries.
Burkina Faso
Chad
Republic of Congo
Democratic
Republic of Congo
Gabon
Kenya
Madagascar
Malawi
Niger
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
100,000 ATTENDEES
 As with the Middle East events,
local musicians and performers
added a touch of cultural
relevancy at each site.
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The furniture, color scheme, and brand presentation were consistent across all of the event locations.
The presentation was repeated three times — once for Zain employees, once for the media, and once for VIPs.
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Each event site added its own touch to the brand rollout, from fireworks to lighting effects. |
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After a video highlighting the new brand and values, the celebrity hosts introduced the general managers at each site, who then delivered a combined presentation via the satellite hookup about the brand and company direction. As one manager finished a sentence, a manager at another site seamlessly picked up the presentation. “We wanted to show there were no borders between us; we were one,” Aboukhalil says of the highly choreographed speech. “Our key message was that by rebranding, we were becoming part of a global family.”
Dr. Al Barrak closed the presentation and evening with final remarks. The next day, Zain repeated the event two more times, delivering identical presentations for the media and for VIPs. In all, 12,000 people attended the events, exceeding Zain’s expectations.
Rolling On to Africa
The successful Middle East events paved the way for an even bigger launch in Africa 11 months later. This time, 14 African countries celebrated the Zain rebrand with simultaneous, satellite-linked launch events spanning the continent with more than 100,000 attendees.
While the company won’t release exact figures for the cost of its rebranding events, Aboukhalil says rebranding efforts thus far have cost tens of millions of dollars. While that’s a mighty chunk of change, he says it’s a small price to pay for a company that recorded 2009 first-quarter revenues of $1.96 billion, up 25 percent over first quarter 2008.
“Launch events of this scale obviously come with a high price tag, but there was simply no other effective means of introducing our new brand
to our employees and the world with the kind of big splash we wanted,” Aboukhalil explains. And with a customer base that has skyrocketed from 600,000 in 2002 to 64.7 million as of May 2009, that event-centric rebranding strategy has certainly solidified Zain’s position as a growing global telecommunications force. E
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INTERNATIONAL EVENT PLANNING
David Zolkwer, creative director and board director for Jack Morton Worldwide, successfully coordinated brand launch events for telecommunications-provider Zain Group in countries across the Middle East and Africa. He offers the following four tips for planning an event
involving a country or culture different from your own.
Don’t generalize: There can be vast cultural and behavioral differences between seemingly similar urban and rural areas in the same country — even before crossing actual geographical borders.
Do your homework: Make sure you have insight into local business practices. Understand the context In which you are operating, such as the economic, political, religious, and cultural customs and climate. Remember that you’re the visitor, and ignorance is no excuse for insensitive behavior.
Keep it local: Local markets must be able to shape local events to reflect and meet the needs of local audiences. Consider how you can help raise local standards to meet your requirements before assuming that everyone and everything should be imported.
Put safety first: Health and safety standards vary. Respect local realities, but do what you can to mitigate risk, protect your own people, and manage your liability. Personal security needs to be assured: If your people don’t feel safe, they will soon become ineffective and abandon ship.
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