Telecom signs come down in build-up to Spark launch

Telecom signs come down in build-up to Spark launch

Preparation for major corporate rebrand well underway

Telecom has begun the huge task of rebranding its stores, phone boxes, building signs and other assets across New Zealand ahead of the business changing its name to Spark this Friday, 8 August.

General Manager Home, Mobile and Business Jason Paris said that the task was indeed a big one, but they had a solid plan place which would see the name Telecom replaced with Spark over the coming weeks.

Mr Paris said a large portion of the work will take place overnight on, or by, Friday. This includes changing out the storefront of all 71 of Telecom’s retail stores and 29 Business Hubs, erecting Spark branding on the flagship buildings in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, Dunedin and other regional locations, and putting the Spark brand on 150 of the most-used phone boxes around the country. Telecom branding will also change out in 400 ‘partner stores’ such as JB Hi-Fi, and in 190 Countdown supermarkets on Friday.

The remaining phone boxes will be rebranded by the end of October, and Telecom signs and branding in around 8,000 dairies, service stations and other third party locations will be replaced with new Spark signs by the end of August. Telecom and Gen-i vehicles will switch to the Spark and Spark Digital branding by early September.

The rebrand is not limited to physical assets. Telecom also has more than 100 online systems that will change over to Spark on or after Friday 8 August. These include the Telecom website, which will switch over to www.spark.co.nz and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Claire Barber, GM Change & Technology, said that where possible, the system changes were being staggered to minimise any issues, and the business had a robust business continuity process in place.

“We have a team in place who will be monitoring the systems closely so that should there be any teething problems we’ll be ready to sort them out as quickly as possible.”

Transforming in to Spark: The numbers
• 3 public-facing websites
• 29 Business Hubs
• 71 Stores
• 100 online system changes
• 135 vehicles
• 186 exterior building signs
• 197 supermarket locations
• 400 partners stores (eg JB Hi-Fi)
• 2,700 phone boxes
• 8,000 signs in dairies, service stations etc

ENDS

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