Positioning a regional leader for the global stage

Sapura Energy (formerly “SapuraKencana Petroleum Berhad”) is a leading upstream industry specialists in global oil and gas services and solutions with teams and facilities across over 20 countries. Following an organizational transformation from a series of M&A moves, Lippincott was engaged for a four-week mandate to help Sapura Energy to refresh its brand and plan its subsequent launch activities with local and global stakeholders.

From the outset, it was clear that Sapura Energy had untapped potential. The combination of entrepreneurial spirit and technical competence was shared across lines of business, with knowledge and technology as core enablers. Working with management and staff we shaped the brand platform and story to reflect the aspiration of the business: to deliver precisely even under the most challenging conditions for global clients and to ensure sustainable impact in local communities.

Reflecting this brand platform, the new design system signifies the company’s renewed purpose of delivering energy solutions on a global footprint. The shape of the logo encapsulates Sapura Energy’s brand spirit and commitment to expertise, collaboration and precision. The dynamic, möbius-inspired form speaks to the purpose of the core businesses coming together to deliver integrated energy solutions. At the heart of the symbol lies a strong vertical axis that is expressive of the backbone of Sapura Energy’s collaborative culture built upon their people, and the integrity of their solutions and precise execution. The blue color scheme expresses the brand’s humanistic spirit and inspires confidence and trust. The sky blue color represents Sapura Energy’s optimism and creativity in developing end-to-end solutions, while the deep sea blue reflects in-depth industry expertise and technical know-how.

Having delivered Sapura Energy’s new purpose and visual identity, we next focused on the brand voice, and how Sapura’s clear ambitions could be best expressed through multiple media in ways that would elevate the brand and resonate with employees, customers and partners.

In assessing legacy Sapura Energy’s communications, the most evident need we identified was a shift in tonality. While Sapura communications were consistent and professional, the tonality was highly institutional and the language employed a heavy dependence on conventional corporate and industry jargon.

With a clear task of redesigning language and tonality, we applied Lippincott’s Human Era principles. We significantly simplified the language, and methodically infused the key design principles: inspiring, nurturing and disciplined. The resulting guidelines included a full range of before and after examples, from press releases, to advertising and recruitment messaging. The new Sapura Energy communications successfully reflect the intent and spirit of the design principles. As important, they do so with a modern economy of language and an empathetic perspective that first and foremost speak to the needs of the reader, the user and listener.

With the reset tone and we dove deeply in the real-life examples of how Sapura Energy had brought clear impact to clients and communities across four continents. Working with dozens of internal stakeholders we developed a library of case studies to exemplify Sapura Energy’s proposition. As importantly, the communications team were integrated through the process to leverage the approach into the future.