Faced with the prospect of new competition and corporate reorganisation, Eurostar’s rebrand needed to live up to the service’s glamourous reputation. Molly Pierce reports on a new identity for the flagship of international rail travel

For 16 years, high-speed rail travel between London, Paris and Brussels could only mean one brand: Eurostar. It was a luxurious brand, trading on the glamorous connotations of its destinations, but while Eurostar enjoyed monopoly of usage on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, it didn’t have to make its brand work particularly hard.

In 2010, that changed. The deregulation of the high-speed line between England and mainland Europe meant the marketplace Eurostar had dominated for so long was set to shift dramatically. Deutsche Bahn plans to offer regular high-speed rail services from London to Germany by 2012, whilst Spanish operator RENFE may start to run lines between Spain and London. In addition to deregulation, Eurostar reorganised its operating structure from tripartite ownership split between France, Belgium and England to a single corporate entity, Eurostar International.

These changes, and an accompanying £700 million investment in improving the service, meant that Eurostar needed to equip itself with a brand that could compete in the new marketplace. London-based design agency SomeOne came on board in December 2009 to work on crafting Eurostar’s new identity, and founder Gary Holt recalls a running start to the project. “Eurostar services were badly hit in December 2009 and January 2010 by inclement weather, and the company took a lot of criticism over its handling of the situation. So SomeOne was operational in crafting a brand from Day One, advising on social media and talking to people at every level. We formed a strong partnership with Eurostar very quickly.”

Eurostar’s new brand would be centred around the positioning that had been developed in-house prior to SomeOne coming on board. Sarah Sempala-Ntege, head of brand & design at Eurostar, takes up the story: “We’d developed, and already started to implement internally, a brand positioning of ‘always moving forward’. The messaging encapsulated our pioneering spirit and the dynamism of the enterprise, as well as placing emphasis on being the best in the new market.”

Together with the new positioning, a robust process of research was at the centre of the rebrand strategy. Carried out by Hall and Partners, there were three separate stages throughout the design development period that served to clarify the direction of the new branding.

“The first stage wasn’t about creative work,” says Holt, “but about discovering attitudes to the brand. We found that Eurostar was an extremely well loved brand, which put it in a great position, but which is also a challenge when it comes to rebranding. Possibly by virtue of its previous position in the market, people didn’t see it as just a service, but were active brand advocates. Luckily the research also revealed a significant appetite for change: the brand was loved enough that audiences saw the need for it to be improved and upgraded. This gave us permission to explore creative opportunities.”

SomeOne created six initial options, which then became a shortlist of three: Holt characterises them as one closely faithful to the status quo, one very different, and one representing a middle route. Another round of internal and external research backed this third option. “They were the best results we’d ever seen,” states Holt. “Research can be a poisoned chalice, but the response to the initial creative work was overwhelmingly positive.”

As part of the creative strategy that retained the valuable brand affection Eurostar possessed, elements of the old logo were incorporated into the new visual identity. “The previous Eurostar logo was composed of three lines,” says Holt, “representing the three operating territories: UK, Belgium and France. We brought the lines together and turned it into a 3D shape, in a new design that represents the organisational restructure and also carries suggestions of movement and fluidity. It also mimics moving through a tunnel – we became aware of this but hadn’t designed it on purpose!”
 

 “We realised that there are actually so many views of Eurostar. It’s a business tool for many people; coming from London it can mean the romance of Paris or the excitement of EuroDisney; and coming from Paris or Brussels it can mean the glamour of London. So changeability is key to the new brand”

This new logo is represented in a physical sculpture built by the SomeOne team. At 3 metres long and weighing arounf 200kg, and inspired by Futurist architecture, the sculpture is a unique manifestation of the Eurostar brand that will be used in pictoral communications and will tour Eruope as the new identity is rolled out through 2011.


The brand that SomeOne developed was designed as more than simply a new logo: as Sempala-Ntege puts it, Eurostar wanted ‘a symbol of change, not a change of symbol’. It is, she points out, an essentially European brand – “it means something different in each market, but there’s also a common experience. We were attracted to SomeOne’s promise to develop a ‘brand world’ for us, a system that would work across the entire Eurostar experience.

“The new identity is expressed in multiple ways, because we now have clear brand properties across the organisation. Our classes of service are branded through the use of different textures, surfaces, and colours; the pictograms developed by SomeOne reflect the curves and waves of the new mark; the typeface is a bespoke creation that brands our written communications without the need for a logo splashed on top of the page.”

Holt feels that the variety of applications for the new brand is another expression of the ‘always moving forward’ philosophy. “The materials used – so for example, the sculpture in Standard class communications is depicted in brushed steel, in Standard Premier it’s in brushed steel next to gold, and in Business Premier in gold – alongside the various degrees of reflection and texture, are all about fluid movement.”

A key aim for the new Eurostar brand was to create a system that would evolve, as the organisation invests new funds and considers the possibility of expansion into new territories. “We realised at the start of the process that there are actually so many views of Eurostar,” recalls Holt. “It’s a business tool for many people; coming from London it can mean the romance of Paris or the excitement of EuroDisney; and coming from Paris or Brussels it can mean the glamour of London. So changeability – and adaptability – is key to the new brand.” Sempala-Ntege echoes this focus, adding: “The beauty of the new system is that it works now, but it will also grow over time. We’d like a brand that will last for another 15 years, but that can evolve throughout that period.”

The development of the new brand took 12 months in total, culminating in a third round of research, again orchestrated by Hall and Partners, which tested the new creative work with over 1,000 people. However the roll-out and implementation of the new brand was delayed for three months and finally delivered in March 2011, in order to coincide with what Sempala-Ntege refers to as a “critical mass of elements” coming together, including the announcement of the £700 million investment – an investment that will go in part on new trains, new customer lounges, a wholly new website: all of which will be branded with the new identity.

SomeOne was – and continues to be – heavily involved in the implementation of the new brand. “Since the ‘brand world’ encapsulates every communication,” says Holt, “we developed a Guardianship programme whereby we work with the core brand team at Eurostar, and oversee everything – the website reskin, online communications, advertising, tone of voice, narrative. What we’re really focused on is there being palpable change for the consumers: what we’d like is for them to step onto a train and think, ‘This all looks great – oh, and has the logo changed?’”

SomeOne is also overseeing a feedback monitoring programme that tracks social media discussions around the brand, while Eurostar has redeveloped its brand tracking model to assess impressions of brand cohesion. And as Holt points out, it’s not simply the attitudes to the new visual identity that ought to be gauged – it all goes back to ‘brand world’. “People might well be more influenced by new food than by new napkins,” he says.

Sempala-Ntege says that the response to the new brand, particularly internally, has been fantastic: “Our staff are really proud to wear the new branding on their uniforms – they really love it.” A launch for internal stakeholders was held at St Pancras, with film presentations and the unveiling of the new sculpture.
“The launch wasn’t about presenting a new identity, as such,” says Holt. “It was about Eurostar’s new direction – and that’s when the new brand really makes sense, when it’s presented in conjunction with this vision for the future of the business.”

Peer reviews
Simon Pendry, Blue Marlin
It’s certainly a bold move on from the previous design of which I was fond, and whilst I’m not sold on every iteration, my feeling is that it’s a simple and elegant mark with a strong idea at its heart. The flowing smooth lines are redolent of a bygone age of stylish travel, reminding me of Roger Excoffon’s classic Air France design of 1964. It seems strongest in its sculptural form, which is stunning, but it seems to have a degree of stretch, which brands today require. It’s easy to criticise the ‘logo’ too harshly, but of course this is only part of the long-term brand experience. I’m prepared to give it a chance and maybe even celebrate a bit of great British creativity, of which the tunnel itself is a classic example.

Neil Hooper, Creative Director, RPM
When Astra Zeneca rebranded 10 years ago, a 3D form represented the brand values and through the intelligent use of colour, photography and texture, a strong identity was formed. The new Eurostar branding has taken the same tack. The artist’s involvement can really be seen in the finesse and craft of the end result. The Eurostar experience has been built up over the years and is as unique as the tunnel itself. It’s good to see the dominant blues, yellows and silvers remain, whilst the brand evolves to stay fresh and relevant. From the bespoke font, the image bank, the textures and even the on-board signage, Eurostar have truly developed their brand world.
 

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