Transitioning brand equity through a merger: Trust, credibility, value, & website migration.

Messaging and creative digital execution captures the essence of a newly merged solution provider powerhouse.

Client: Verinext

Website: verinext.com

Industry: IT Solution Provider

Branding & Messaging

Website Design & Development

Content & Creative

Media Placement

Thought Leadership

Awards and Recognition

Social Media

Weeks to Full Website Launch

Brands into One

LinkedIn Followers Activated

Launch News Readership

Awards in Just 6 Months

CHALLENGE

Strategically merging two established brands.

Two renown IT solution providers, Veristor and Anexinet, announced their merger integrating teams and technology practices to create a new IT solution provider powerhouse. The challenge was how to build on the established brand equity each had created over their combined three decades of business. The brand strength of each company’s name held trust, credibility and value in their individual markets. As a newly merged organization, the company needed to transition this value into a fresh new brand while harking back on their individual heritage.

SOLUTION

Inspired, creative execution – fast.

During the company naming process, it was important to surveyed employees and customers that the new company name continue to leverage the “veri” from the Veristor brand, which is the Latin root for truth, a core pillar of the combined company’s values. This was combined with “next” to demonstrate how the company uniquely helps customers prepare for the future digital needs of business. Once the Verinext name was selected, the trademark process consumed multiple months and by the time it was cleared to proceed with website and content implementation, time was extremely compressed. Moving quickly across multiple delivery points, Avista crafted the company message platform, developed integrated website content, built out the website imagery and creative and launched the new digital property, with supporting social media, media placement, corporate content and more in just 6 weeks. This was just in time to launch at the Verinext sales kickoff unveiling the new brand with unprecedented fanfare and success.

RESULTS

New brand drives exponential growth.

The Verinext brand effectively integrated brand identities, and their intrinsic equity, from its preceding organizations, creating a natural brand transition without losing the value in the original Verinext Anexinet names. Using recognizable design elements to highlight the V and X, it effectively carries the historical brand characteristics while establishing a new vision for the brand’s future.

Supporting the brand launch, Avista executed broad media placement activities for a total readership of 24 million. Avista activated the company’s 35K social media followers with engaging social content showcasing the new brand identity. A regular cadenced of blogs, educational content, and thought leadership articles was then executed to build visibility for the new brand. And, aggressive award submission activity resulted in 9 industry awards in just the first 6 months of the new company brand. Overall, the new Verinext brand has been embraced throughout the industry. It’s become a core element to Verinext’s dramatic growth and expansion as a true IT solution provider powerhouse.

View the Verinext website here.

Avista is a true marketing partner for Verinext. Their integrated capabilities support our marketing strategy end-to-end, from brand and public relations, to content delivery, thought leadership and digital and website marketing. Their agility and passion helped us meet an intense deadline that we thought would never be possible for a new website and brand launch in just 6 weeks. We couldn’t have done it without them.”