A New Brand Takes Flight!

Even for a seasoned marketing communications agency, it is always a rare treat when you can build a new international brand from the ground up.

While we love the opportunity to evolve or refresh a brand, to be there from the very start is an exhilarating experience. Especially when that brand is a real forward-looking, future-changing concept like Aireon^SM.

So what exactly is Aireon, all about?

Aireon will leverage the power of the world’s furthest reaching Iridium network to enable — for the first time ever — a truly global, pole-to-pole aircraft tracking and surveillance capability.

Aireon is an innovative new company bringing together global commercial aviation companies and air navigation service providers, and plans to transform the business of air traffic management on a global scale by providing a surveillance infrastructure that will enable optimization of air operations around the world—while offering exciting new applications and business opportunities.

Using private capital, Aireon will provide the first opportunity for global air traffic monitoring starting as early as 2017. Aireon is truly a world’s first. Imagine being tasked with branding a potentially world changing concept that doesn’t quite exist yet. It is aspirational yet within reality’s reach. It was an exceptionally exciting assignment.

The team at Banfield-Seguin was in a unique position to handle the challenge of branding this new company—with our extensive and intimate experience in the telecommunications industry, particularly in satellite communications—we started out with a strong understanding of the client’s needs.

From name development to messaging, to web design, social media strategy, video and print production, our team worked closely with Aireon’s leadership team and the key stakeholders at Iridium to ensure consistency in messaging and a unified look and feel throughout all materials right down to the live web broadcast of the launch press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC on June 18.

Under Creative Director John Charette’s lead, the team was challenged with creating a brand that was not only unique but also accessible—with a diverse audience set that includes both industry experts and outsiders—the brand had to be credible but also easy to understand while existing in a tightly controlled and regulated industry.

The brand would have to be strong enough to entice the industry, relevant legislators, potential investors and partners while building excitement for a service that will only be fully available in 2017.

“Aireon was able to reap the benefits of working with a full-service marketing communications team that directed every facet of communications for a truly integrated approach,” said Charette. “Our team was able to facilitate a cohesive conversation about the corporate offering with the core proposition at the centre of each element.”

While Banfield-Seguin was able to provide a full-service offering, this was by no means a singular effort. Banfield-Seguin worked closely with Moveable Online who developed the website, and FTI Consulting who led the public relations support for the launch press conference on June 18. Brand development and execution was made possible by collaborative efforts with the Aireon marketing team.

“A project of this magnitude required a team that was able to understand all facets of the communications strategy, and integrate them into a full executed brand. We had very high expectations for this program which Banfield far exceeded. We could not have asked for a better result.”

- Julia Wilton, Executive Director, Corporate and Marketing Communications 

Editor’s note: The Aireon launch recently took home five Davey Awards for various components of the integrated campaign. Read more...