{"id":11080,"date":"2025-05-28T16:30:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T09:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/notonsunday-and-we-all-need-words-rebrand-direct-ferries\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T16:30:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T09:30:03","slug":"notonsunday-and-we-all-need-words-rebrand-direct-ferries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/notonsunday-and-we-all-need-words-rebrand-direct-ferries\/","title":{"rendered":"NotOnSunday and We All Need Words rebrand Direct Ferries"},"content":{"rendered":"

NotOnSunday<\/a> and We All Need Words<\/a> have injected some personality into Direct Ferries.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s biggest online travel agent for ferry bookings, Direct Ferries already had 2.5 million customers in 25 countries, but wanted to keep growing as an aggregator.<\/p>\n

The client initially approached Rob Mitchell of strategy and copywriting agency We All Need Words to help with a new tone of voice for its customer services and bot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked us what their brand should sound like,\u201d Mitchell says. \u201cIn a very kamikaze account management style, I said it could sound like anything, because I don\u2019t think you\u2019ve got much of a brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duly hooked, the client asked what their brand could look like, with the right help.<\/p>\n

The Direct Ferries brand guidelines developed by NotOnSunday<\/p>\n

Mitchell brought branding agency NotOnSunday on board \u2013 they had first worked together on the rebranding of the Scouts\u2019 UK division in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed a platform and vehicle to enable us to grow,\u201d says Direct Ferries CEO Niall Walsh.<\/p>\n

That growth will come from the aggregator share of the market, which is low in this sector \u2013 while 45% of tickets for trains are bought through aggregators like TrainLine, it\u2019s just 5% for ferries.<\/p>\n

\u201cConversion rate is everything to us,\u201d Walsh explains. \u201cWe\u2019re a traffic acquisition machine. It\u2019s about giving that traffic the best customer experience so that they check out.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get them down that funnel, the rebrand needed to instil confidence in its audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers can see when there isn\u2019t consistency. If there\u2019s no consistency, there\u2019s no trust, if there\u2019s no trust, people aren\u2019t going to give you their credit card number,\u201d Walsh says.<\/p>\n

Consideration was given to typographic treatment of lengthy words in other languages<\/p>\n

He admits the company had never previously had a considered brand \u2013 instead it had been built through iteration and trial and error.<\/p>\n

Visually and verbally, from the website, emails and display ads to the call centre and blog, there was a mix of styles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you know it, you\u2019ve got a complete mess of images and tone of voice,\u201d Walsh says.<\/p>\n

We Are All Words and NotOnSunday set about creating a brand that showed ferry travel in a more aspirational light. They swapped images of ferries and facilities for sea air and views of the horizon, and they ditched cheesy photos of models in favour of travel magazine-style photography.<\/p>\n

The tag-line was created by We All Need Words<\/p>\n

The wider strategy was to present Direct Ferries as the ferry brand. We All Need Words developed a tag-line \u2013 \u201cWherever you\u2019re sailing, start here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was part of a wider, adaptable brand system using chevrons, which mimic the shape of a ship\u2019s bow. These can be used on their own or paired with \u2018A to B\u2019 couplet headlines, mirroring the overall \u201cwherever you\u2019re sailing\u201d line.<\/p>\n

The chevrons can be repositioned to take into account different word lengths in the 24 languages that Direct Ferries operates in.<\/p>\n

These headline pairings are delivered in a pair of typefaces \u2013 the sans serif Mundial<\/em>, described by NotOnSunday\u2019s Trev Townsend as friendly, and the serif Rocky<\/em>, which is a little classier.<\/p>\n

Together, they\u2019re intended to bring out and draw together the bigger brand system.<\/p>\n

NotOnSunday did an audit of the ferry sector, including its iconography of boats and pictograms. \u201cDirect Ferries got lost among the others,\u201d says Townsend.<\/p>\n

The Direct Ferries logo before and after<\/p>\n

The previous logo was very literal, says Walsh. \u201cHaving three ships to define that you sell a ferry felt slightly dated.\u201d<\/p>\n

NotOnSunday crafted the new logo, with a mark created out of the \u2018D\u2019 and \u2018F\u2019. The angle of the \u2018F\u2019 matches that of the chevron.<\/p>\n

The new hero colour, orange, was chosen to be both modern and timeless, and to stand out from its blue rivals. That is contrasted with secondary colours that are meant to reference the sea \u2013 dark and light blues and greens.<\/p>\n

All of the new design work had to fit around the existing UX, because of its robust and proven capacity to drive sales.<\/p>\n

The new Direct Ferries tone of voice and branding<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could change all the details and decorative elements, but we couldn\u2019t change the customer journey, because it\u2019s been tested and tested and it works,\u201d Townsend says.<\/p>\n

NotOnSunday redrew the icons, including the car symbol and dog paw print, giving them the same line weight. Similarly, the buttons are now consistent sizes and shapes, with rounded edges to match the logo mark.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s worked, Walsh says. \u201cThe data tells us that customers prefer this brand, because nothing else has changed on the website, it\u2019s the same product, price, experience, and the same user journey,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Direct Ferries OOH advertising<\/p>\n

\nWhat to read next: <\/strong>Intense energy to inevitable risks \u2013 Designing for a start-up<\/a> | NOT Wieden+Kennedy creates whole-hearted Eurovision identity<\/a> | Sergeant Walnuts\u2019 new Manchester Building Society identity is rooted in its home city<\/a> | Meet the Isle of Man\u2019s main graphic designer<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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