Brand in action: Suez

Who: Suez Environnement

What: More than 40 sub-brands worldwide were unified under their parent company, Suez Environnement, a French utility company. GLIMMA, a brand implementation agency, was asked to prepare the rebranding of 500 sites in 35 countries. All of the strategic sites, around half of the total, had to be revealed on the same day. Before that day, GLIMMA was asked to keep the rebranding exercise confidential. This meant that there was the challenge of visiting sites, and communicating with people on the ground, without revealing that there was going to be a change of identity.

How: There were three phases to the roll-out. The first phase was a survey of all 500 sites, this helped the team at GLIMMA to understand the scope of the rebrand. The second phase was the roll-out in March across 172 priority sites. The strategic sites included exterior and interior signage and some vehicle livery at head office buildings and larger industrial sites. All were rebranded on the days leading up to the official launch, but the logo itself remained hidden until the chosen launch date. The final phase was the roll-out of the identity across the remaining sites.

Why: Right from the start, the implementation of the brand was a major consideration for Suez. The rebranding was at the core of its new strategy and its vision to make Suez a champion of the resource revolution – not just a water treatment and waste management company. David Chanrion, GLIMMA, says, “The communications department really took charge of this and were aware of the challenges. They really anticipated the signage, brand touchpoints and visual communication.” The simultaneous rebrand was carried out because Suez wanted to create a centralised vision on a global scale.