CenturyLink: When Telecom Goes Tech

CLIENT CenturyLink

SCOPE STRATEGY / BRAND ACTIVATION / VIDEO & MOTION / WEB & INTERACTIVE / USER EXPERIENCE

From business tech to in-home wifi, Fortune 500 giant CenturyLink connects millions of Americans every day.

THE CHALLENGE

CenturyLink, one of the nation’s largest 200 companies, has traditionally existed as a rural provider of landline SMB and consumer telecom services. A decline in these traditional services has prompted CenturyLink to aggressively pivot to a major cloud and business network services provider. Our team was brought in as CenturyLink’s strategic and creative partner to communicate this new brand positioning to a millennial audience and increase recruitment of younger talent to the CenturyLink team.

THE SOLUTION

Our first meetings with the CenturyLink team happened on-site, where we spent afternoons somewhere between deep dive research and the fully stocked on-campus dining hall. Our approach started with strategy, understanding the shift in CenturyLink’s brand positioning and imagining ways to allow younger people to share in this massive pivot. From here, we rolled out a series of websites aimed at attracting younger users and highlighting CenturyLink’s culture and campus. We simultaneously messaged existing markets with digital ads and fully animated video spots that unveiled the new face of CenturyLink. On the recruitment end, we revitalized trade show and on-campus branding through new creative and virtual reality experiences intended to show the things that make CenturyLink most exciting.

Full Project Overview

Big companies often move slow, so we were brought in to move fast. Amidst a matrix of web pages scattered across the internet, we worked to bring focus to the brand by unifying the visuals and messages. We rolled out modern, mobile web layouts while elevating the messaging to speak to a new generation of customers and recruits.

CONNECTING YOU TO WHAT MATTERS

Coupled with dozens of new landing pages, we produced engaging video content that would begin shifting the narrative around the brand and create a cohesive web experience.

From landing pages to motion graphics, our work engaged users across all phases of their journey.

Targeted Landers

We designed landing pages tailored to every audience segment so that CenturyLink could speak directly to each candidate and provide the content that they care about most. Technically, these landing pages provide critical analytics for future decision making

Branded Iconography

Our design team hand-illustrated icons that gave life and personality to the brand message.

ANIMATED MOTION GRAPHICS

We told CenturyLink’s story using animated video content that was scripted, storyboarded and produced in our studio. The videos were distributed nationally across digital networks.

Custom Artwork

We illustrated lively characters and scenes to capture CenturyLink’s approachability. To attract younger, creative minds we developed a style that was an intentional departure from the traditional corporate look and feel that the world had grown used to.

Passion, personality, and experience distinguishes ThreeSixtyEight. It doesn’t feel like I’m working with a vendor. We have the type of relationship that’s professional, but we've made friendships and also truly enjoy working with each other.

— KELSEA MCCRARY | CENTURYLINK

Final Thoughts

“Working with so many landing pages created a unique challenge. The pages had to cater to a wide range of demographics while still looking cohesive and staying true to the CenturyLink brand. Because of this, I was pushed to experiment with new and unique user interactions that gave the brand experience new life.”

Corey Schneider

Lead Designer

“It was critical to nail the user experience and content hierarchy for each individual page because we were speaking to such a diverse set of users. Once we got that down, the project came to life.”

Jeremy Beyt

CSO

ThreeSixtyEight Digital, Web, Video, and Brand Strategy