OneMSP

Most growing businesses only think about IT when it gets in the way: a new office that needs connecting, new starters waiting on laptops, a provider whose explanations need a glossary. OneMSP, a managed service provider, set out to change that with a simpler model: software, hardware and ongoing support for one monthly subscription, with no set-up fees.

The catch was that every managed service provider says it’s simple. When we reviewed the market, most brands leaned on the same buzzwords, the same claims to be “trusted” and the same generic stock imagery. OneMSP was going after companies of around 20 people that expected to reach 50 within 18 months, so it needed a brand that a busy managing director would believe on first contact and a technical lead would take seriously.

We started with a Brandscape workshop to pin down why OneMSP exists, who it serves and what it promises. Two buyers came out of it: the managing director of a firm of around 30 people who just wants IT dealt with, and the CTO of a fast-growing business in a regulated sector who is tired of being treated as the office IT person. Both wanted the same thing, a partner who speaks plainly and takes the problem off their hands.

That gave the brand one promise, IT made simple, and a voice to match: clear, direct and professional without being corporate. Rather than lead with a list of services, the sales story starts with three questions any business owner can answer: where do you want to be, how will you get there, and what do you need to do it? The offer sits behind them in three plain areas, Managed Networks, Managed Services and Managed Workflow, and the copy keeps its promises short. “Surprises are only good at parties” tells a nervous buyer there are no upfront costs and no hidden fees.

The identity is built from two shapes and a shade: a semicircle and a straight line that combine into the rounded ONE wordmark, a nod to balance and simplicity in an industry known for jargon and hidden costs. Broken apart, the same shapes become a pattern of electric blue arcs and blocks on deep navy that runs through everything from stationery to social profiles.

We rolled the brand out across a new website, with 3D animated headers that build the logo’s shapes into a rocket, a rising chart and a streamlined funnel for the Managed Networks, Managed Services and Managed Workflow pages. Alongside it we wrote and designed a modular sales deck that splits into overview, networks, services and workflow versions, each made to send or to present, plus proposal collateral, customer case studies for the site and animated social content.

The partnership kept growing after launch. In 2021 we designed a microsite, Scaling IT Simple, offering a free IT guide for Series A startups, and created the ads that pointed people to it across Google, LinkedIn, Reddit and Twitter. Over nine weeks in early 2022 the campaign earned more than 4.5 million impressions and 11,000 clicks and brought over 10,000 people to the microsite.

We also designed concepts for OneMSP’s office walls and an in-office digital display, and in 2023 a printed booklet and an exhibition stand that put the brand’s argument in two lines: IT support is broken, and your business will thrive with the right technology.