Brutally Honest Internet

Brand Design & Identity

Campaigns

D2C Strategy

Challenge

Exetel is consistently ranked Australia’s #1 internet service provider by the ACCC. They had the performance chops. But their brand? Flatlined. In a category full of empty promises and beige branding, they were stuck in a visual coma. So, we gave them a full-blown identity transplant, built around one gutsy new truth: Brutally Honest Internet.

Insight

Aussies are angry. And for good reason. From groceries to services to utility bills, they’re paying more and getting less. They’re getting ripped off. To conceal the steal, the internet industry tries to overwhelm them. More plans. More jargon. Exetel is here to flip the script. And we made a brand that shows it.

Launching a Brutally Honest Internet Brand

We tossed out the rulebook, embraced a brutalist aesthetic and gave the brand a new raison d'être: “Brutally Honest Internet.”

Exetel lives purely in the digital world, never in print, so we dared to pick an unprintable brand colour that no other ISP in Australia could claim – Warp Green. A colour that screams off digital screens. It’s bold, it’s brash, and it’s utterly impossible to ignore. We paired that look with a brutally honest tone of voice, challenging Aussies to rethink everything they thought they knew about wifi. And customers paid more than just attention.

The work launched with a series of high-impact OOH and digital pieces that highlighted just how broken the category is and how Exetel is breaking out. In collaboration with the team at Never Sit Still, we developed striking visuals and bold, unmissable animations that cut through the noise, delivering standout creative and sharp commentary on industry tropes.

Impact

Within its first 30 days in the world, Exetel’s Brutally Honest Internet branding delivered the equivalent of 4.2 months worth of sales - Exetel’s most successful month ever. Better yet, we slashed the businesses cost per order by 79%, proving that great work works great.

79%

reduction in cost per order
4.2

months of sales in 30 days
#1

sales month