XL AxiataCopied

PT XL Axiata Tbk turned 18 in October 2014 and used the occasion to change a logo it had never touched. On 28 October 2014, at the launch of its Real Mobile 4G LTE trial in Jakarta, president director Hasnul Suhaimi told reporters that much had changed in the industry, but one thing never had: the logo. Liputan6.com's Andina Librianty described the new mark as dominated by green and yellow on a blue background.

Majalah ICT reported the colour story Hasnul gave: blue, yellow and green stand for trust, success and harmony. The philosophy, he said, was opening a new page, so that new opportunities open up for XL customers to move forward and reach their goals. Liputan6 quoted him saying the logo was deliberately built on the idea that a telecom operator's job is to open new pages and give customers new chances to advance, and that its spirit was a more dynamic, responsive and innovative XL.

The logo shared the stage with the network. XL presented the 4G LTE service, with speeds up to 100 Mbps and partners Huawei and Ericsson, as a birthday present, with a free trial at sites in Jakarta including Kota Kasablanka, Central Park and Senayan City. Liputan6 reported that XL's data customers numbered about 32 million, 51 percent of 62.9 million subscribers.

Tying a new logo to a new network is the oldest trick in telecom marketing, and it works because the logo borrows the excitement of the product. The rationale is weaker. Assigning trust, success and harmony to three colours is boilerplate that could describe almost any flag, and the turning page metaphor asks a lot of a pair of letters. Still, after 18 years with one mark, an operator betting on mobile data had reason to look less like a voice carrier.