The $1.25 billion sale of Veolia’s district energy group to a private equity firm, Antin Infrastructure Partners, created an independent leader in a highly competitive market. To realize the benefits of its new status and sole focus on providing best-in-class district energy solutions, the company needed a brand and a name that differentiated it from the competition and conveyed the dynamic nature and huge potential of the district energy model.
Through our research, we discovered that clients truly appreciate the efficiency, reliability, resilience and sustainability of the new entity’s energy solutions. But they rave about the company’s people – their engineering expertise as well as their unwavering commitment to personal service.
When our analysis revealed a competitive field that was surprisingly devoid of humanity, not to mention any communication of what the district energy model ultimately enables for customers, we saw an opportunity to create a strong and differentiated new brand in the marketplace.
Together with the company, we created a brand that builds upon the strength of the organization’s employees and communicates the higher order potential of their services to transform energy from a cost-of-doing-business into a source of security and income to support the core mission of client organizations.
We recommended a new name for the company, Vicinity Energy, to emphasize both the highly localized nature of the company’s district energy networks and the close relationship and responsive service customers can expect to receive from Vicinity employees.
The visual identity we developed for Vicinity alludes to the sustainability of the company’s solutions, as well as the proximity of its services and employees.
The extended visual language we created features a dynamic color palette and close-cropped images of Vicinity employees and customers, further strengthening our optimistic, people-forward strategy.
We brought all of these elements together in a dynamic digital landing page for Vicinity that clearly communicates the company’s status and portfolio of services, as well as its environmentally responsible, benefit- and relationship-oriented brand positioning.
