Signaling the company’s future expansion as a global internet service provider, Viasat today introduced a unified master brand and new logo identity system.
While the core identity remains “Viasat,” (now with a small “s”) other company sub-brand names will be phased out throughout 2018. Those include the “Exede” and “WildBlue” residential internet brands as well as Yonder business aviation service, GoWiFi managed Wi-Fi service, Arconics aviation software name and others.
Along with the unified name comes a new brand identity.
“It’s not just about changing the logo or updating the colors,” said Viasat’s Steven Mesnick, vice president, Marketing and Pricing. “We want a brand that can be consistent across our suite of products and services, as well as one that can have brand appeal internationally. Our goal is to bring a brand to market – under one master identity – that speaks with a singular customer voice.”
The change comes just ahead of the launch of the ViaSat-2 satellite broadband service, which is expected in early 2018. ViaSat-2 is more than twice as powerful as the ViaSat-1 satellite that launched in 2011, and is expected to increase Viasat’s internet coverage area sevenfold, by expanding into new regions within Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, some of northern South America and the primary air and maritime routes across the Atlantic to Europe. ViaSat-2 is also expected to double capacity over its predecessor.
The new brand applies to all of Viasat’s products, from military equipment to consumer and business internet.
Tying Viasat’s diverse portfolio under a single name is expected to help drive awareness for the Company’s offerings – on the ground, in the air and at sea, while also bolstering the Company’s overall corporate reputation.
“We found we were diluting our own brand by having too many sub-brands,” Mesnick continued. “This led us to be highly motivated to rebrand under one master name to restore awareness and capture new opportunities across markets. And as we grow domestically and internationally, we wanted to be prepared to serve all of our markets from one brand position of strength.”
A great example is a consumer flying on a Viasat-enabled commercial airplane, who can enjoy our service firsthand at 35,000 feet. When they land, they can then make a more educated choice to enjoy our broadband service in their home. Additionally, for consumers, knowing Viasat provides communications equipment and cybersecurity to global militaries and government agencies inspires confidence.
We recognize “sunsetting” our sub-brands will not happen overnight. In fact, we’re taking a phased approach to how we retire our brands over the course of the next six months. For example, the current Exede.com website will remain active for some time into 2018, as we want to ensure our residential and business internet customers have access to the site, service and navigation tools they know and use. We do encourage all customers to check back on this blog and on the Viasat.com and Exede.com websites for details on our brand switchover.