Apple Ain’t The Only One Changing Its Name. Say Goodbye To Cingular.

So, Apple went with Cingular as its exclusive carrier for the iPhone. This annoucement was made Jan 9th along with the mention of changing its name to Apple, Inc. No doubt that today’s announcement from AT&T that it will phase out the Cingular brand came as a surprise to Apple as well. I’m sure part of the reason Apple chose Cingular was due to the brand recognition…the YOUNG and HIP (hip?) brand recognition…that Cingular developed over the years. The brand was hailed by some as a savior to AT&T Wireless customers particularly in the realm of customer service.

AT&T already owned 60% of Cingular Wireless while the remaining 40% was owned by Bellsouth. And since the the merger between AT&T and Bellsouth was finalized on December 29th, AT&T assumed the remaining ownership. Choosing to announce the namechange until after the Apple iPhone announcement definitely helped. According to a PRNewswire article (via Marketwatch.com), the branding campaign will take place starting Monday, January 15th.

Each transition campaign element will conclude with the Cingular and AT&T logos coming together while an announcer states that “Cingular is now the new AT&T.” The broadcast spots will conclude with an animation in which the “Jack” character appears to “skywrite” the AT&T globe.

The campaign will kick off with several creative executions called “Raising It Higher,” which morphs Cingular’s familiar “raising the bar” tag line and imagery into the AT&T globe. The first version of this creative execution is called “Grain,” which shows a combine harvesting wheat and appears to be drawing the Cingular five bars, but as the picture zooms out, the AT&T globe comes into focus. Both broadcast TV and print executions are scheduled to start the week of Jan. 15.

So, while AT&T isn’t regarded as “young & hip” now…well, not like Cingular is…,the release of the iPhone will certainly help the branding effort in obtaining that type of respectability.

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