NEW BRAND AND NEW £700M CONTRACT. COINCIDENCE?

The Brief

Ark hired Gasp to rethink its outward facing communications to reflect the genuine ‘difference’ more accurately and stand out from a crowd of ‘me-too’ suppliers.

Ark Data Centres design, construct and operate the UK's most efficient data centres, via pioneering cooling and monitoring technology.

Our Response

A messaging framework helped to scope out the core identity. Developing the three messaging pillars of ‘passion’, ‘innovation’ and ‘efficiency’ we refreshed the brand, guidelines and a suite of style sheets to update all of Arks collateral, from presentation slides to the website.

With Ark having a reputation as environmentally friendly pioneers, we were instinctively drawn towards nature for branding inspiration. Scientists spend their whole careers trying to mimic the innovation and efficiency found in nature, and it is within nature that we found images to align with. Our suite of images convey Ark’s deep rooted belief in the importance of being responsible for their impact on the earth.

Our new messaging strategy led to a more regular flow of news, a fatter pipeline of case studies and plenty of press and analyst meetings to boot.

The Results

In the first six months, Ark saw a four-fold uptick in press coverage alone. Its social programme also boomed over that time frame. The Twitter following swelled and engagement went up by more than 750 per cent.

It can be harder to assess the tangible results from a re-branding, but one thing is for certain: Ark were thrilled to tell us they signed a seven-year, £700m joint venture agreement for the Crown Hosting Service to centralise all non-cloud data. Some commentators questioned if Ark was ‘big’ enough to pull off this deal, but the quality of their services and the new branding successfully demonstrated their credibility and professionalism.