Digicel takes branding to the next level

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17: Digicel is taking it to the street.

The cellphone company has started a marketing campaign that takes putting their name on a store’s sign to a whole new level — they have paid to paint and put up signage on three east end businesses.

Dub City Variety in Crawl, Whitter’s International Barbershop in Crawl as well as the One Syop Shop in St George’s have been painted with the red and white brand colours of Digicel as well as some decorative artwork and signage.

Shane Mora, marketing manager for Digicel Bermuda, said his company had a request to paint a building and after considering it, thought it could be a win-win situation.

Digicel saves the business the cost of painting the outside of the building and the signage and in return, gets street side marketing to thousands of motorists every day.

Mr Mora said the three businesses that they have repainted are all authorized resellers for Digicel’s Top Up, its credit for pre-paid phones.

Mr Mora said: “What happens a lot with our resellers is they come with proposals on putting up signs.

Well-received

“They usually say ‘In return for having your logo or brand on our sign, would you pay for the sign to be made?’ It’s a win-win agreement between the reseller and ourselves.

“We decided to bump it up a notch. There are a few high traffic areas that a lot of our customers go through.

“We proposed back to them ‘What if we painted your store with the Digicel colours and other attractive elements to give it a bit of a theme?’

“We tried it at one location and it proved to be well-received and we’ve done a few more since then and we’ve received a lot of positive feedback.”

Dub City’s shop has a cricket player on while Whitter’s has a pair of scissors and a comb. The One Stop Shop in St George’s has a summer theme with palm trees and a beach ball.

Mr Mora said they’ve put in a large number of requests “to have some other things done to other locations”, but they are expensive to do. As much as we would like to do many more, we have to be very careful in the ones we take on.

“We would like to do more in the future and we are checking out those opportunities one by one, but there are no commitments to do any more at the moment.

“We’d definitely like to do more in the west and that’s the direction we’re looking into next.”

Taury Whitter, owner of Whitter’s International Barbershop, said the painting has helped his business.

“They (Digicel) have created something artistic.”

Mr Whitter said the co-branding with Digicel has helped bring positive attention to his business and been a real conversation starter.