WA’s Netlink shakes off Covid gloom with a rebrand via Perth digital agency PWD
West Australia’s Netlink, which provides managed IT services, ITC solutions, Cyber Security and IT Consulting to businesses, wanted to update their brand. With help from digital agency PWD, it created a new brand identity and website and a 37% surge in both traffic and sales in just a few months.
By the time that Australian business emerged from the grip of COVID and began to regain a steady flow in second quarter 2021, it became apparent that much had changed. While traditional office hubs were replaced with networks of remote home offices during COVID, new IT services and solutions has been explored and implemented.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported in April that 80% of Australian companies allowing employees to work remotely expected the trend to continue through the long-term and 45% of companies allowing some level of remote working reported an uptick in staff wellbeing. COVID had also triggered its own epidemic in the business world.
Cybercrime had soared as the vast majority of businesses moved their workforce to home offices. According to a 2020 Harvery Nash/KPMG CIO survey, 41% of organisations experienced an increase in cyber-security incidents. According to security ratings organisation Risk Based Security, more than 37 billion records were exposed in 2020, a 141% increase over 2019 and by far the most records exposed in a single year since the company has been reporting on data breach activity. Phishing, malspams and ransomware attacks have remained a major threat to business in 2021.
By April, Netlink saw that opportunities for its own business growth were beginning to surge. They also realised that a brand that lives or dies by focussing on the future, needed to evolve its own look. It wasn’t showing its modernity and its state-of-the-art services were being undermined by its look.
The company wanted to update its brand messaging and image, while still keeping its personality. The goal was to step up into a bigger playing field and open its services to a new enterprise clientele as well as highlighting the company’s ethos of providing simple solutions to complex problems. The job was given to another well-established West Australian business, digital agency PWD.
“Netlink was one of West Australia’s first Managed Services Providers,” said PWD managing director, Oliver Wood. “The company has been setting the industry standard for twenty-seven years and prides itself on delivering the most up-to-date tech, systems, and solutions to their customers. It realised it needed a brand identity and website to match.”
PWD recommended that for this, Netlink’s second only rebrand since it began operations, a completely new brand identity and web platform was needed. The agency modernised and updated logos and branding, while keeping the look and feel of the brand intact and drawing on the history of the business, as well as the company’s brand messaging and wording across all communications. It also developed a consistent brand look and feel and created a new streamlined website. The result was then unveiled at a launch event at Optus Stadium.
Wood continued: “Since Netlink’s rebrand went live, the company has enjoyed an increase in traffic to its website, a boost of 37% in two months. It has also had an impressive increase in sales, up 20% compared with the same period last year. This is a great result for our client. We’re really proud to have contributed to Netlink’s growth.”
“When PWD relocated to the same building in 2019 they engaged us to help them install their network connectivity infrastructure. A relationship soon formed, and the seeds were planted that we could use their services to help boost our brand in the WA Marketplace. When COVID struck we were massively impacted by a significant downturn in our sales. This became the catalyst to engage PWD to completely overhaul our brand, web page and promotional material to reignite our presence and sales here in WA”
“PWD’s friendly and professional team delivered a great result during a difficult period of lockdowns and disruptions, which eventually culminated in a fantastic rebrand and launch of our enterprise services at Optus Stadium. The night was spectacular and our guests were highly impressed with our new brand and presence. We could not have achieved such a fantastic outcome without the expert guidance and creativity from the team at PWD.” Steve van Blommestein, Managing Director, Netlink.