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A holistic campaign to reinforce Fontech position as a tech leader

We launched at MWC18 a futuristic and eye-catching campaign that conveys our energy and passion for cutting-edge technology.

Creative concept: the visual is made up of fluid, digitally native forms, that represent the perfect symbiosis between innovation, technology, and the future. The circle symbolizes the continuous connectivity that we all expect now. Campaign objective: brand awareness and lead generation. The holistic campaign includes search, display, social media, performance landing pages, advertising in Fira Barcelona, public relations activities, and a variety of merchandising materials. 

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About strategy, brand and comms!

¿Por qué se ha elegido el nombre de Fontech para esta nueva marca?

Elegimos Fontech porque nos ayuda a posicionarnos como expertos en tecnología, a la vez que mantiene un vínculo sólido con Fon. Creemos que “tech” potencia a la nueva marca, y sigue capitalizando el reconocimiento de marca tan valioso de Fon, tras más de una década cosechando éxitos en la industria del WiFi. Fontech nace con un objetivo claro: ayudar al ecosistema de las telecomunicaciones a acelerar el despliegue y gestión inteligente de redes WiFi a través de un portfolio completo de soluciones tecnológicas.

¿Por qué habéis decidido utilizar el azul para el nuevo logotipo?

La nueva paleta de color simboliza la tecnología, innovación y confianza que la marca aporta al sector. Por otro lado, incorporamos el círculo al nuevo universo visual representando gráficamente y de forma líquida la tecnología - escalable, robusta y flexible. En general, el lenguaje visual de Fontech se refina, con rasgos más pulidos y definidos. Incorpora una tipografía de pesos más ligeros y una familia de pictogramas basados en la morfología de dicha tipografía que aporta una imagen más técnica. El resultado: una identidad potente, de trazos modernos y profesionales que proyecta la marca hacia el futuro, para afianzar su proceso de expansión y liderazgo en el mercado internacional.

¿Qué es más importante en la comunicación de Fon, la estrategia b2b o b2c?

La innovación es parte de nuestro ADN, y eso nos hace ser capaces de evolucionar para adaptarnos a las necesidades de nuestras audiencias. Comenzamos en el 2006 con un foco único en el consumidor final. En una segunda etapa, y con el objetivo de escalar la idea de negocio, llegamos a acuerdos con compañías de telecomunicaciones de todo el mundo, pasando a ser una marca B2B2C. A día de hoy, nuestro foco está en el área B2B. Nuestros clientes son compañías de telecomunicaciones y empresas que necesitan desplegar, configurar, gestionar y monetizar redes WiFi de forma más inteligente. No obstante, a pesar de vender soluciones tecnológicas, tenemos claro que los éxitos se construyen sobre relaciones, y para nosotros es indudable el componente "H2H” (human-to-human) en comunicación. Hablamos y vendemos a personas, no a objetos, por lo que los conceptos creativos detrás de cada campaña deben estar enfocados a conectar con ellas, tienen que ser memorables, poniendo en valor los beneficios de nuestras soluciones.

Fon es una multinacional ¿Es la estrategia de comunicación de la compañía igual para todos sus mercados?

Sí, efectivamente somos una compañía con presencia en 5 continentes. Después del crecimiento global de los últimos 10 años, Fontech tiene un plan estratégico centrado en ofrecer un portfolio de soluciones tecnológicas más amplio, por lo que a nivel de comunicación tenemos un objetivo global de reconocimiento de marca y posicionamiento como indiscutible líder dentro del ecosistema WiFi. A pesar de que nuestro core business es el mismo en todo el mundo, somos conscientes de que las necesidades sobre esta tecnología varían mercado a mercado, por lo que siempre localizamos nuestros contenidos por área geográfica. Think globally, act locally es uno de nuestros mantras.

“El 80% del valor de una compañía está en sus intangibles” ¿Estás de acuerdo con esto?

Absolutamente de acuerdo. Vivimos en una economía de intangibles y para una compañía tecnológica como nosotros son parte esencial de nuestro éxito. Gestionar de forma integrada intangibles como la reputación de la compañía, el reconocimiento de la marca, el know-how y la atracción de talento para generar innovación de forma sostenida, es vital.

Entendemos que la marca es una entidad viva que necesita inversión continua para evolucionar y adaptarse al entorno, sin perder un ápice de liderazgo. La gestión de los intangibles es fundamental para el crecimiento y la proyección a futuro. Solo así se consigue el reconocimiento y la relevancia sostenidos en el tiempo.

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A new brand is born: Fontech

Today we launch Fontech, specialists in WiFi software for operators and enterprises. Leveraging Fon’s +10 years of experience in the WiFi industry, Fontech makes WiFi management smart and simple. Fon revolutionized the industry by pioneering WiFi sharing, and Fontech’s aim is to be the global leader in providing WiFi technology to both operators and enterprises.

When working through the naming process, we took into consideration many different options. But in the end, Fon is an important asset and we believe that maintaining a link to Fon will boost the new brand, using the reputation built over the years as a solid foundation for growth. At the same time, the new name highlights that we are a strong technological company.

Coming up with a new brand is always an enriching and exciting experience, and I’m happy to share our new visual universe with you!

We have chosen to maintain Fon’s emblematic isotype, the essence of Fon’s identity formed by fusing the WiFi signal, the location pointer, and the hot-air balloon, but we’ve now added the strength of the color blue, which symbolizes the technology and innovation that the company brings to the WiFi sector.

We have also incorporated the circle which graphically represents our technology - scalable, robust, flexible, cloud-based, and easy to configure. The new identity intelligently demonstrates the company’s purpose: Making the management and operation of WiFi smart and simple for operators and enterprises.

Fontech’s visual language is more refined, with the addition of more polished and defined characteristics thanks to a lighter typeface and a new pictogram system based in the morphology of the typeface which portrays a more technical image.

The photographic style has also evolved towards cleaner images which are easier to understand.

The result is a strong visual identity with modern and professional touches that projects the brand into the future. Under Fontech, we expect our solutions and our people to continue to be world-class, but the new brand will help strengthen our position as a leader in WiFi software as we expand into international markets.

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Connectivity, the cornerstone

I was honored to join this South Summit edition to share, at the Smart Homes and Smart Habits panel, Fon’s vision on this topic.“As a WiFi technology company, and experts in connecting people with WiFi, our ultimate goal is to make the management of WiFi networks smarter. We believe connectivity is the cornerstone of the Smart Home!”.

The way in which we access the internet at home has changed completely. Nowadays, we have more and more connected devices that demand access in more places. According to Qualcomm, by 2020 the average four-person household will have 50 smart devices. Just one single router is not going to make it! With so many devices fighting for connectivity, a WiFi mesh system is needed to boost coverage, reach, capacity, and speed, and to create a single WiFi network.

Our homes are the center of our lives, and many activities traditionally carried out outside of the home, such as working, exercising, shopping, and learning, now occur inside our homes too. The productivity we now require in this environment is significantly greater than it was even a generation ago. When we design the technology for the home of the future should think about people’s needs all the time to be successful.

This is one of the key points that EL PAIS took from my comments at the panel session. And it isn’t just Fon’s opinion! In the article, the journalists highlighted this shared opinion from both Sanjay Sarma, Vice President of Open Learning at MIT, and Maciej Kranz, Vice President of innovation strategy at Cisco. IoT is not just technology for technology’s sake. It’s about implementing technology to solve real-life problems!

So what should that technology look like?

For smart homes to be a mass market success, the technology delivering connectivity must be:

Fast, reliable, and secure: This goes without saying!

Simple: No extra efforts, users just want to live an uninterrupted life with no worries.

Transparent: The user gets full visibility of networks, and can run speed tests and check usage by device.

Social: Guest Network can be created for family & friends, making sharing content a more seamless experience.

Accessible: User-friendly and intuitive applications that create remarkable experiences.

Responsive rather than demanding: Understanding our needs and meeting them before we ask.

Smart Homes should help us live truly simple and meaningful tech experiences.

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Always on, always on the move

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Marketing insights from a tech company

Recently I had the pleasure to share some insights on Marketing Strategy with Top Comunicación, based on my experience working at Fon.

Fon is a tech firm, present across 5 continents. Our core business is the development of WiFi management software. Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, as well as British Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are just some of our top-tier investors. Our clients are telecommunications companies and managed service providers that need to deploy, configure, manage and monetize WiFi networks in the most intelligent way. We also develop connectivity solutions in order to offer an always-best-connected experience to users.

To the Q, what is my vision for branding, marketing & communication?

From my perspective, to conceptualize, design, and bring a brand to life is a very exciting process. Even more so when you get to launch it to market. But what is truly enjoyable is supporting its growth, taking it to the next level, ensuring that it meets all business objectives… To achieve this, the brand has to be capable of evolving and adapting.

At Fon our marketing and communication plan is holistic. We plan all impacts across owned, earned and paid channels in an integrated manner. The objective of our plan is to guide prospects along a path towards the buying decision.

Our strategy is based on three pillars, the first of which is relevant content. We focus attention on our website, given that it is a universal point of contact, and is relevant to all of our stakeholders: prospects, clients, investors, employees, and press. Our editorial work helps us to demonstrate our industry know-how, and we distribute the content via our blog, social media, and forums. We also use the MK automation tool Marketo, integrated within our CRM Salesforce, to distribute content pills effectively. These regular bites of content help us to remain top of mind and move our leads further down the buying process.

The second pillar is related to the media, and our proactive reaction to the press. We create content to communicate corporate news and product launches, but we also generate pieces of creative based on industry trends and investigations that we carry out. We collaborate closely with media to write opinion articles, which help position us as thought leaders within the industry.

The third and final pillar is paid media, which for us includes sponsorship of events and conferences, as well as investments in Adwords, Retargeting, and LinkedIn. We like to think that anything you can measure can be optimized. For this reason, we regularly work with urchin tracking modules (UTMs) in order to have a clear visibility of the impact of each action in our monthly KPIs dashboard.

The technology sector, or more specifically, developing software technology, is very dynamic. Therefore it is really important to be flexible and to know how to plan and then re-plan when necessary. Additionally, sales cycles are extremely long, and successes are built on relationships. Therefore relationship marketing activities are key. Following this thought process, although we’re selling technological solutions, CMOs must clearly maintain the human-to-human component. We are speaking to and selling to people, not objects! The creative concepts behind each campaign should be focused on connecting with these people: They should be memorable, and should clearly translate the value and benefits of our solutions.

Our year really gets going at Mobile World Congress. It is the global mobile technology event of the year, at which we meet with the most influential communication service providers to talk about the future of WiFi. This year we launched a creative campaign focused on WiFi as an essential “element” for telecommunications. Through an ethereal image of liquid, tinged in our corporate colors, we constructed a metaphor for the ubiquity of WiFi. We achieved significant brand awareness with the campaign, as well as extraordinary results in terms of lead generation, which was our principal objective. Additionally, we achieved significant coverage in the press as well as on social media channels, with interviews published in El País, Silicon, Redes&Telecom, Mobile World Live, FierceWireless, LightReading, and Telecoms, amongst others.

Overall I consider myself very lucky, as I am passionate about every aspect of my role.

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An always-best-connected experience

We just launched our new Enhanced Connectivity Solution, which brings together the cutting-edge technology and services that Communication Service Providers (CSPs) need to offer the best WiFi user experience.

We’ve developed an intelligent network selection technology based on insights gained from over a decade of handling billions of WiFi connections to the world’s largest carrier WiFi network, which we’ve built in collaboration with 25 leading operators worldwide.

The solution grants CSPs the power to deliver subscribers an always-best-connected experience through seamless WiFi connectivity to the best available networks. It also ensures that they’re getting the most from WiFi strategies such as WiFi-First, WiFi Calling, and especially Offloading, given its potential to reduce costs by moving traffic from cellular to WiFi networks.

The main elements of the solution are:

A new and ever-evolving QoE Manager, identifies the best available network in range, by scanning and assigning each network a real-time quality rating. This rating is enhanced by an advanced algorithm based on big data, that considers factors such as radio interface measurements, historical connection performance, and even device context (e.g. movement patterns and network density).

A Connection Manager seamlessly connects the user’s device to the best available WiFi network identified and is available through a mobile software development kit (SDK) or branded app.

In addition to the technology, we’ve put the expertise of our WiFi specialists at the disposal of CSPs to help them optimize their network. Through the generation of analytics and strategic reports, our experts give CSPs the insights they need to get the most from their network and offer the best user connectivity experience possible.

We believe users more than ever deserve an always-best-connected experience to fully enjoy their connected lives.

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https://retina.elpais.com/retina/2017/10/04/tendencias/1507122383_552668.html

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relevant content, sexy ads, amplified messages, omnichannel strategy, lead generation = sustainable marketing

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Technology should be felt, otherwise, it is empty.

T-mobile is a great example of how doing it right. Its presence in this edition of Mobile World Congress was bold, concise and confident, as its brand. They cover it all:

Making "tangible" the un-tangible. LOVE MAGENTA. They have their own merchandising shop, how many other telecoms brands can do that?

Delivering the Future. T-ROBOTS making the presentations!

Building Engagement. LIFE IS FOR SHARING, was the motto at the bar!

Best connectivity. WIFI AT HOME. T-mobile already identified how crucial is for telecommunication providers to do it right at the heart of life - the home.

Content factory. Making it easy to SPREAD THE NEWS. Cool twitter wall!

T-Mobile knows how to bring excitement to everything they do. One of the latest store opening - Ain't no party like a #magenta party!

The real success is when a company knows what to stand for and brings it to life, from top to bottom. As T-Mobile USA CEO Jonh Legere, twitter brilliant description:"Magenta-wearing, customer-loving focused on ending wireless pain points & scaring our competitors!"

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Fon at MWC 2017: this edition’s highlights

This year’s edition of Mobile World Congress certainly did not disappoint! An action-packed 4 days for everyone involved, Fon had a busy agenda. Meeting with the most influential global communication service providers to talk about the future of WiFi, in our executive meeting room at the heart of the trade show. The atmosphere was vibrant.

The launch of our new cutting-edge technology Fon's WiFi Service Management Solution at the event got people talking! Here are some of the interviews:

El Pais, Rosa Jiménez Cano, spoke to Fon CEO Alex Puregger about our evolution as a company, as well as the revolution of the WiFi ecosystem.

Telecoms chats with Alex about changing attitudes towards WiFi. And how our solution which offers operators the opportunity to gain greater insight, connectivity, and service delivery potential.

Silicon interviews Enrique Farfán, Fon COO, discussing WiFi’s role in the context of 5G and the role of our solution within the changing telecommunications environment.

We took the stage at NEXTech Lab to share our insights on the future of WiFi. Here are a couple of key takeaways:

– Currently, 80% of smartphone traffic is over WiFi. And the future is even brighter for WiFi: smart cities will become a reality, all transport will offer WiFi, as well as every venue or store offering Guest WiFi professionally.

– Telcos will embrace the trends and start rolling out community WiFi, as well as getting involved in the WiFi connection experience. Community WiFi will grow 5x by 2021.

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Millennials want to work in companies with a clear purpose, they want to make an impact.

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If you can "brand" a country, all its local brands will shine

So many times I have admired Switzerland because of the powerful brand they have built. The confidence Swiss people have in themselves is strong. They live and work under a Masterbrand that make them powerful.

It amazes me how they use the word "Swiss" as an adjective that stands for "outstanding reliability", "ultimate precision", "superior quality" and "maximum effectiveness".

Almost every Swiss brands take advantage of a unique and recognizable visual asset: the Swiss cross. Airline, watches manufacturers, jewellery and knives crafters, cosmetic, chocolate and cheese producers. They all take advantage of the powerful associations of the national cross symbol.

Here some illustrations:

In Switzerland, they speak 4 languages but only one when it comes to quality "Swiss"! - Swiss Airline

Swiss perfection to go - Duty Free

Official licensed product of the Swiss Confederation - Hanowa Swiss Military

Helvetica Swiss Made - Simply Swiss - Mondaine Swiss Watch

Makers of the original Swiss army knife - Victorinox Swiss Army

Swiss made quality watches since 1951 - Jowissa

Swiss made for everyone - Mowatch

Born in Switzerland 1115 - Gruyere

Cheeses from Switzerland. "Switzerland. Naturally" - CheesesfromSwitzerland.com

There is one obvious thing, the benefits of a strong umbrella Country Brand are endless:

Swiss brands drive preference

Swiss brands generate fidelity

Swiss brands create national pride

Swiss brands generate confidence

Swiss brands allow markup premium prices

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First Step: You need to know what you stand for and be able to bring it to LIFE consistently and remarkably!!