Magenta TelekomCopied

Deutsche Telekom's Austrian arm bought cable and TV operator UPC Austria, and the two merged on 1 August 2018. Nine months later they gave up both names. The company's newsroom said the new brand Magenta was first presented on the evening of 6 May 2019, with all offers launched under it from 7 May and the T-Mobile and UPC brands withdrawn from the Austrian market. The company itself would be called Magenta Telekom, and phone network displays would switch to Magenta T.

The mark combines the word Magenta with a superscript T in a circle, while the familiar T stays as the corporate logo. Kurier reported that, contrary to speculation, the company would not simply be called T, but kept the letter as a nod to its German parent; chief executive Andreas Bierwirth summed it up as, now we have the T and Austria has a better Telekom. The colour itself becomes the brand: the company described a look that is louder, more direct and bolder than T-Mobile or UPC, with full magenta surfaces and white type for consumers, and more white with magenta type for Magenta Business. The identity was developed with Deutsche Telekom and lead agency Jung von Matt/Donau.

Der Standard put the cost of the change at 20 million euros and quoted Bierwirth: we are now a new company and want to make our belonging to the German parent clear. No job cuts were planned, though departures would not be replaced. The discount mobile brand Telering would also be folded in by early 2020, which Der Standard called surprising given how discounters had been shaking up the market. Kurier noted that the TV spots kept the familiar T-Mobile sound sequence, and that the full switch would take about a year.

Naming a company after a colour is audacious, and only Deutsche Telekom could do it, since magenta has been its trademark for decades and, as the company stressed, is legally protected. The result is clear and confident, and it neatly sidesteps having to choose between the two merging names. The weakness is that a colour word abroad is just a colour word; Magenta means Telekom only to people who already know Telekom. In Austria, where they do, it is a strong and memorable solution.