NETRIO

Situation

NETRIO is a managed solutions provider who effectively invented the Network Operations Center as a Service (NOCaaS) concept. They also provide network IT services to their clients around the clock. They had a lot going for them already when we stepped in, but they had neither polished marketing collateral nor a website that matched the quality of the services they delivered. Which is why they called lofgren.

Brand Definition

After a few brainstorming sessions with the Founder/CEO and his executive team, we developed key descriptive terms that succinctly defined the brand. Among the items drafted in this brand platform was a brand personality, which we determined to be dependable, intelligent, genuine, entrepreneurial, energetic and flexible. In turn, these terms guided the resultant creative work.

Identity/Brand Guide

For the next phase in the rebrand, we worked on NETRIO’s brand identity. Their original logo was red and gray, so we based their new corporate palette on those colors to maintain a sense of continuity with existing clients. At the same time, we established a new typographic direction that would help maintain consistency across all channels, preventing communications from looking disjointed and disorganized. Something a client’s clients never want to see.

A couple of peeks inside the guide:

Business Cards

Business cards remain an important conversation starter for brands. For NETRIO, their new cards proved to be a significant upgrade with a cleaner, more modern design that helps communicate they are a forward-thinking company. Which, as an IT provider, they should be.

Product Naming and Branding

NETRIO already had several defined core service offerings, but only one had its own, non-generic name. Since we liked the name they had selected for their NOCaaS offering, Vigilance, we worked with their leadership team to name their other services in a similar vein. Once named, each was given its own bit of NETIRO-related sub-branding.

Vigilance – NETRIO’s NOCaaS (Network Operations Center as a Service) is its flagship service offering. We thought the name fit, since they monitor and protect client networks 24/7/365.

Alliance – NETRIO’s UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) voice services offering, including SIP Trunking and Contact Center services. The three offerings formed an alliance.

Agility – NETRIO’s SD-WAN solution. Software-Defined WAN, or SD-WAN is a revolutionary approach toward business networking. Managed SD-WAN Services for Business simplify the management and operations of a traditional WAN, and provide NETRIO’s clients with agility.

Fusion – NETRIO’s Connectivity solution is their business internet service. This isn’t sexy, but it’s something that every business has to have. It includes things like Dedicated Internet Access, Business Fiber Internet Circuits, Point-to-Point Circuits, Broadband, Fixed Wireless, 4G Cellular Wireless, Satellite, Private Lines, and MPLS. NETRIO fuses all of the business internet services into one solution, which allows the client to have one point-of-contact instead of many.

Animated Logo

We took it upon ourselves to film some promotional videos at some of NETRIO’s customer events. To open and close these videos, we outsourced the creation of intro/outro animations featuring NETRIO brand elements. While not quite Spielberg-ian in scope, they were nonetheless budget-friendly. Here’s the intro version:

Brochures

Brochures and other printed collateral are important tactile pieces that can show the overall picture of a business. For NETRIO, we created a corporate overview brochure and then brochures about individual solution offerings. While extremely tight budgetary constraints prevented our usual graphical, tonal, and design explorations, we still (of course) elevated the pieces far beyond what existed (or in several cases did not exist) before.

Trade Show Posters

Prior to working with us, NETRIO’s branded elements for tradeshows were tablecloths. Yes. Tablecloths. We created stand-up posters that gave them more of a professional presence to show off their key products and services at a glance. The posters, business cards, and brochures were all on-brand, making the entire NETRIO booth look and feel more cohesive (and legitimate) than ever before.

Photography

Our leader, Kevin Lofgren, is a professional photographer and took promotional shots of NETRIO’s newly renovated office. Because who doesn’t want to show off their new digs? While he was at it, he took portraits of the executive team to use on the website.

Click on a photo to enlarge it.

Website

Someone once said you never get a second chance to make a great first impression, and that’s why we needed to revamp NETRIO’s website. Simply put, it was in disarray with stock images and virtually no corporate branding. While we prefer to code-our-own (with non-proprietary CMS backends like WordPress, of course), the client wanted their new site up in a week to coincide with an important trade show. That’s right, a week. The standard kind with seven days. So we went with Squarespace and made the magic happen.

Here is a high-level view of the four product pages on the temporary website, using their new logos and identities:

Outcome

By establishing a strong brand identity and documenting the rules for it, we allowed them to transition from using us on an extended-contract basis to ad hoc project work as necessary. Internally, NETRIO was able to use the new branding we created and add to it as their business evolved.