CenturyLink is the Country’s Fourth-largest Telecommunications Company
NEW ORLEANS—Peter Mayer launched the new CenturyLink brand October 19. The launch followed CenturyTel’s July merger with EMBARQ, formerly the largest independent telecommunications company in the country. Headquartered in Monroe, La., CenturyLink is now the country’s fourth-largest telecommunications company, serving approximately 7.1 million residential and business access lines across 33 states.
Peter Mayer collaborated with Monigle Associates, a Denver brand consulting and design firm, on the brand launch for CenturyLink. Peter Mayer’s core responsibility was to bring the brand to life with a national advertising campaign supporting the newly designed brand identity and tagline, Stronger Connected™.
“Peter Mayer developed the campaign for the brand launch on the premise that as individuals and as a nation, we’re all stronger when we’re connected,” said Peter Mayer President Mark Mayer. “The new tagline helps deliver on the promise that customers can connect locally, nationally and beyond, to the people, information and entertainment they want, to make their lives and work better.”
“To launch a brand this size in four months is challenging,” said Mayer. “The quality of the CenturyLink work is a testament to the cooperation we received from Monigle and from the client’s direction and faith in our abilities.”
Peter Mayer implemented phase I of CenturyLink’s brand campaign launch September 8 through October 16. The objective was to announce to existing CenturyTel and EMBARQ customers that their respective telecommunications providers would soon become CenturyLink. This announcement campaign included print, outdoor, TV and Internet outreach.
Phase II unveiled the new CenturyLink brand in all markets beginning on October 19. The brand launch campaign continued through November 22. It included print, outdoor, TV, direct mail, bill inserts, online advertising, a microsite, www.strongerconnected.com, that allowed the online community to see and share the TV spot and a newly redesigned website, www.centurylink.com. Further brand advertising for CenturyLink is anticipated in 2010.
Peter Mayer’s Interactive department is responsible for managing CenturyLink’s online presence. The website redesign called for a complete reassembly of the former CenturyTel and EMBARQ websites to produce a new site reflecting a new company with the appropriate CenturyLink brand and feel. Now, www.centurylink.com is the single source for former CenturyTel and EMBARQ customers to shop, pay bills and receive support.
“We spent a lot of time translating the established brand positioning strategy into a creative platform that led to Stronger Connected,” said Peter Mayer Executive Creative Director Josh Mayer. “Most telecommunications companies are focused on network capabilities and entertainment. We saw an opportunity to focus on the more human side of communications that we felt had been abandoned in the telecom industry. We wanted to show that the American spirit of working hard with one another has always made the country a better place and that kind of ethic is alive and well at CenturyLink. So we focused on company reputation, customer and employee interaction, and providing products and services that improve people’s lives. We coupled these ideals with the practical benefits of CenturyLink’s communications products and services, allowing people and businesses to connect to information more easily and less expensively than before.”
Peter Mayer has a longstanding relationship with CenturyTel, now CenturyLink, having worked with CenturyTel since 2001.
Peter Mayer Advertising Inc. was founded in 1967 with three employees and $200,000 in annual billings. Today, it is one of the largest full-service advertising, public relations and marketing agencies in the Gulf South, with a staff of more than 140 professionals and annual billings of more than $100 million. Peter Mayer Advertising specializes in all areas of advertising, marketing, direct response, interactive, public relations and promotions. Our client list includes local, regional and national accounts. View our CenturyLink work on Flickr. Follow us on Twitter.