People have been letting their fingers do the walking since 1886, when the first official Yellow Pages was invented. But now there’s a new way to get everyday tasks done. Enter YP, “the new way to do”— or, the Yellow Pages reinvented and rebranded for a new audience and a new age.
Anticipating the decline of its print business, and recognizing the need to make a strong move into digital and mobile channels, YP has focused its vision.
With brand strategy and identity created by Interbrand NY and a fresh advertising campaign by BarrettSF launched this week, YP targets a specific group—“doers”—with a clean, bold, and direct approach. Through its app and website, YP appeals to this task-orientated segment, making it easier and quicker to get things done.
YP is now poised to bring in more mobile ad revenue than Twitter in 2013. The new branding is designed to do the same, aiding doers with clear, quick, communication and celebrating the act of finishing.
Looking to create a timeless mark, the logo moves away from the app-inspired jewel to a custom-crafted YP configuration underlined with a simple yellow bar. The gestures of the doer inspired the design team: underlines, checkmarks, circles, and highlights — where the yellow line becomes a visual shorthand for efficiency and task completion.
Clean, bold, typography within the brand system makes headlines quick and easy to read. Refined and focused use of yellow—a color that was previously used gratuitously as a signature cue—now points the way to useful information or highlights a result. A brisk, direct, brand voice brings refreshing personality to headlines while swiftly and succinctly delivering only what the reader needs to know.
From the original analogue search brand, the brand update signals a refresh in relevance, and places YP firmly in the here, now and beyond.
Claire Falloon is Associate Director, Verbal Identity, Interbrand
