10 01732 759725 UCAAS This begs two questions: q Why does a leading and hugely successful unified communications and connectivity company suddenly feel the need to undergo a brand-building exercise?; and w What has a big fluffy dog got to do Gamma? European growth For an answer to the first question, you only need to look at Gamma’s growth plans which, given the maturity of the UK market, are focused on expansion of its unified communications offering (strengthened with the acquisition of the EnableX Group in December 2023) and accelerated growth in Europe. Europe is currently a few years behind the UK in the adoption of cloud communications and the sophistication of telephony-related services. Given Gamma’s experience and expertise, Wade says it is well placed to play a big role in helping European businesses move to the cloud and modernise their comms. “There is an opportunity for us to carve out a different and unique position in the rest of Europe as we go forward, and that’s where we want to get to,” he said. The Gamma brand, he says, is very important as a unifying force for the dozen or more companies Gamma has acquired over the last 20+ years and as a means of conveying its capabilities and values as it seeks to forge a distinctive identity, especially in the large and growing European market. Good together Which brings us to the second question. As part of her research prior to the rebranding, Andrea Herbert interviewed 100 customers, suppliers and channel partners to find out what they liked about Gamma, and top of the list was the people. “The real reason we found that people choose Gamma is that warm, fuzzy feeling of a really good relationship,” she said. “We wanted to bring that to life. This is where the idea grew some legs, and then those legs got a bit hairy and then they got a face. And we thought, actually this is the perfect way to describe Gamma. We are a bit like a giant, purple, furry dog. We’re friendly. We’re very positive. If things are tough, we will absolutely protect you. When things are good, we will run by your side in the field. We’re about loyalty. We’re about trust and transparency. I can’t think of anything better to bring that to life than this dog.” Successful relationships Gamma has backed up its ‘Good together’ messaging, with new research that explores the correlation between good relationships and business success. Is Gamma’s largely relationship-driven success (as opposed to brand-driven success) unusual or have other businesses grown in this way? To find out Gamma and psychologist and psychotherapist Dr Charlotte Armitage have produced a Return on Relationships whitepaper based on a survey of 800 people. This clearly shows the importance of relationships to business success, with 72% of business leaders stating that good rapport is more important than price and capabilities when choosing a partner or supplier. In addition, 73% of leaders in growing companies felt they had strong relationships with clients, with 64% saying the same for colleagues, compared to 61% and 52% respectively in businesses with declining revenues. www.gammagroup.co. Gamma Communications is every Marketing Director’s dream (or should that be worst nightmare?), a company that has grown consistently and seemingly effortlessly without any largescale promotion of the brand and its core values, beyond logo/ graphics refreshes (previously undertaken in January 2020). From murky beginnings in 2002 – no one at the company can quite remember how the telephony, connectivity and UCaaS provider started – it has grown into a £521.7 million turnover business, with 1,800 employees and a growing presence in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany. In the UK alone, one in every three calls into a business goes via a Gamma service. In all this time, Gamma, while clearly well known in the channel and valued by its direct customers, has maintained a low profile in the wider world. As Chief Marketing and Product Officer Chris Wade said: “When I joined Gamma, we were described as a company that no one knew and that we didn’t want anyone to know.” That’s now about to change. Wade and Marketing Director Andrea Herbert have broken with company tradition and invested £550,000 in a comprehensive pan-European rebrand and brand marketing programme featuring a giant purple CGI dog and the slogan ‘Good together’. Significantly, this campaign isn’t just aimed at existing customers and channel partners but is designed to raise awareness of the Gamma brand amongst the wider public in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and the UK, where the new branding was displayed on the side of Manchester’s tallest building for a week after the launch. UCaaS provider Gamma has adopted a giant, purple CGI dog as the embodiment of its core brand values If Gamma was a dog…
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