CorpComms Magazine

No matter how well you plan or how much of a veteran you might be in the corporate rebranding field, you can't control the weather, the news agenda - or the competition's response. And the metamorphosis of NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile into Virgin Media, highlighted by Sir Richard Branson's appearance in a glass box in Covent Garden last month, was a case in point.

Not only did London get its heaviest snowfall for years, but rival BSkyB also chose the same day to outline its planned pay service on digital terrestrial television. BSkyB was quick to denounce Virgin Media's rebranding. 'Customers are smart,' a spokesperson says. 'They'll work out whether a new name and a coat of red paint have really changed anything.'

Just as well, then, that Virgin Media believes the rebrand reflects reality. Virgin has spent £20 mn using marketing agencies Rapier and RKCR and designers Start Creative to rebrand a telecoms, cable TV, internet and mobile phones group with 20,000 UK employees and 100 offices.

'It had to be a lot more than a lick of paint,' says James Kydd, Virgin Media's managing director of marketing. 'Telewest and NTL merged in March 2006 and Virgin Mobile was integrated in July. Clearly, there was a tremendous amount of integration to do and, from very early on, the Virgin values were to the fore.

'Overhauling billing systems and customer service and spending money to make sure employees were looked after came top of our priorities. Without doing those things, there's no way we would have rebranded under the Virgin name.'

NTL had been through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and cost-cutting, while Telewest had 'clunky old systems to replace,' according to Kydd. Neither was considered a brand customers would miss, and Virgin had long invested in making its brand customer-friendly. 'It's about customer service, accountability and what our people do,' adds Kydd.

Such a move carries the risk of collateral damage to the Virgin brand if the reality is not as slick as the promise - as might well have happened following Virgin's acquisition of the West Coast Main Line and Cross Country rail franchises several years ago.

But Kydd believes Virgin Media is different. 'The biggest issue at Virgin Trains was that we had to rebrand the business before we changed it,' he explains. 'It was a government decision but the problem for us was that the rolling stock was 30 to 40 years old and new stock took three to four years to order and arrive.'

This time, Virgin is confident its rebranding is on the right track. BSkyB will doubtless make sure everyone knows about it if it isn't.

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