Earlier this summer Telus announced that following a review, it is ending its nearly 18-year relationship with Taxi and having The&Partnership take over as its creative AOR effective September 1. Advertising for subsidiary brand Koodo will be moving to a Vision 7 agency early in 2015. Taxi launched the Koodo brand for Telus in 2008.

It’s understandable that after such a long run a company might decide to reassess its marketing and advertising efforts or its agency – but to make a radical change to the look and feel of the advertising could be damaging to brand recognition and equity.

This is particularly true of the Telus and Koodo mobile brands. Advertising campaigns for both are distinctive and easily recognizable. Those are particularly important characteristics for advertising today in an age of texting, short sound bites and young people with the attention spans of a flea. Even 40 years ago, the rule of thumb for advertisers was that they maybe 12 to 15 seconds to capture consumer attention with their brands. Today they have about three seconds – if that.

The friendly, recognizable style we see in all the Telus print and TV advertising is as ideal for today’s consumers as it would be 18 years ago. Viewers just have to get a glimpse of the engaging animal or reptile actors shilling for Telus or a short peek at Koodo’s blue-hooded El Tabador cartoon mascot to identify the brands. Consumers that stick around for the end of the commercials or take a closer look at the print ads always find the messages or offers easy to find and understand.

Consistency and clarity. Perfect.