PXC (formerly TalkTalk Wholesale)

The Approach

Collaborative creativity through constant communication

With all available hands on deck to cook up a major national brand identity with all the trimmings from scratch in just fourteen weeks, we quickly understood the key to success for the project would be an ability to take an even more agile approach than usual. Ideally, you start telling a brand story from the beginning, developing the brand core, or essence before moving on to visual branding.

Given the compressed timeline, we adapted our usual methodology and wherever possible ran processes simultaneously only ‘knitting them together’ at critical junctures in the project. 

Concept directions and copy platforms were initiated more based on the commissioning team’s instincts and then adjusted and refined when market positioning and value propositions had been nailed down.

Running creative work streams with a high degree of dependency concurrently rather than consecutively required a huge amount of skilful project management and equally importantly, non-stop communication from the client team. Happily, both of these precious commodities were readily available at every stage of the project!

The solution

Making wholesale communications cool

The Platform X Communications or PXC brand, as it was quickly abbreviated to, is a distillation of the newly independent company’s strong sense of mission. The branding, as noted by industry commentators (see below) does not look like any other in the industry because PXC is unlike any other company in the industry. We seized upon this determination to make a difference by being different and created a brand that unashamedly put its customers’ ambition at the heart of why it existed.

Taking our cue from PXC’s charismatic CEO, Tom O’Hagan, we developed a brand that relished doing things differently and asking difficult questions of the industry and itself. The branding with its pared back colour palette and energetic forward- and upward-facing chevrons shows a company that is driven to make a big impact.

We distilled into just two words, the burning sense at PXC that the sector needs to change if the whole telecoms industry is to achieve its fullest potential for the UK’s consumers and businesses: Potential Unlimited. This is purposefully  more a rallying battlecry than a polite, informative strapline.

Brand essence outputs included: Vision, mission, values, purpose, brand personality and an extensive guide on tone of voice. For the visual identity, we produced the PlatformX Communication / PXC logo suite, primary and secondary colour palettes, typography brand elements (icons, charts, graphs, presentation decks etc.) all in an online brand hub, accessible to the client’s employees and partners. 

As well as creating the brand identity, the ifour team introduced it to the PXC team with an internal marketing campaign, including videos posters and email. We ran training sessions and walk-throughs of the new brand for employees who would be using the branding in their work. Our design team also assisted with the oversight of the installation of the office rebranding in PXC’s London and Manchester headquarters. In January, we won the commission to design and build the corporate website, pxc.co.uk.

ifour was then asked to design and develop the external brand launch campaign. Building on Potential Unlimited, we created the Fast Forward to Greatness concept, which invites existing and prospective partners to work with PXC to unleash their own potential. The campaign imagery reflected this proposition by juxtaposing images of promise with images of greatness. 

The impact

The making of a blockbuster

The PXC brand launched successfully in April 2024 with PXC’s flagship partner event Future Connect, held at the Odeon, Leicester Square in London.

The industry and partner response to the unveiling of the new brand was instant and positive. PXC has been hailed for daring to challenge the industry to change and its departure from standard industry branding language is seen as a reflection of its determination to ‘disrupt the channel’.

They’ve taken a completely different stance in a traditional market, and this is exactly what we like to see. The larger wholesale brands have very much stayed the same over the last decade, and times have completely changed as we enter the broadband revolution! PXC is 100% leading the way to support their partners.