Oi Case Study

Ambition

In 2001, the Brazilian telecom giant Telemar decided to launch a new mobile phone service. In a market dominated by formal and formulaic brands, Telemar wanted to be very different.

Action

Wolff Olins started by defining a brand idea that captured this ambition: Cut the crap. We created a name for the new brand (Oi means "hi"), and its visual identity, brand language, communication style, packaging and many other brand applications. More than 2.2 million people signed up in the first year - almost 20% of the Brazilian market and 4 times more than the target. Oi successfully took customers away from other networks; 75% of Oi's customers left other providers to join Oi. The launch was so successful that in 2007, Oi became the brand for all of Telemar's fixed-line, broadband and mobile services. Wolff Olins developed the brand strategy, brand architecture and visual expressions for this new, bigger Oi.

Impact

In December 2002, the Brazilian business newspaper Isoté Dinheiro called the new brand a "phenomenon" and it has continued to perform phenomenally since. Oi is now the largest telecom provider in South America, with 14 million fixed-line and 17 million mobile customers.