Proudly Filipino 
The long overdue change in logo for PLDT finally came true last night, June 13, during a special and private PLDT-Smart event at Shangri-La Makati. Important personalities of PLDT and its wireless arm, Smart helped in unveiling the new change.
With a hashtag, #ANewDay, the announcement of the new logos for PLDT and Smart may come as a surprise for many.
Why are the shape of the new logos for PLDT and Smart similar?
Both have new triangulation logos that have the shape of Delta, the fourth Greek alphabet, which means “change”. PLDT has red and grey colors while Smart uses blue and green hues.
Nevertheless, the change in the logos have been explained.
The new PLDT and Smart logos are shaped like a triangle with the three sides representing the company’s business pillars: exceptional people, meaningful innovations, and our valuable customers.
“Rather than allow ourselves to be disrupted with these new digital technologies, we are disrupting ourselves. We have embarked on a digital pivot to evolve into the telco of everything that serves the needs of our country’s digital future,” said PLDT Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan.
“Our company shall lead the digital revolution by embracing the smart life within the organization, pursuing digital innovations and enabling our customers to go digital in their own ways. The biggest beneficiaries will be our valuable customers who will have enriching choices, as the propagation of digital products, services and devices explode,” Pangilinan said.
The change in logos has been seen as a way for PLDT and Smart to better serve the Filipino consumers.
From the PR shared:
The new logo also comes with the recent change in name of the company from “Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company” into “PLDT Inc.” to better represent the company’s current thrust to decisively shift its business to data-driven services.
PLDT-Smart has embarked on a three-year digital pivot that aims to transform its networks into the country’s most data capable infrastructure delivering a growing array of compelling digital services.
This year alone, the Group has allocated P43 billion for capital expenditures. Around $100 million more in capex will likely be earmarked, following the acquisition of the telecoms business of San Miguel Corp. which included the utilization of the so-called digital dividend, the 700 MHz frequency band.
Digital is not anymore a trend. It is a lifestyle and it has become part of the Filipinos. Hopefully, the change would also translate to better service, affordable Internet rates and faster Internet speed. Now the pending question is: do you like the new logos?
Netizens made parallels on the change of the logos with other brands. PLDT’s new logo has been compared with LBC while Smart has been set side by side with Vicks.
People may find the new logos to be the products of the popular vapor rub and vapor candy.
Carlo Andrew Olano, blogger of Why Cebu?, created a blog post about the event he attended at Shangri-La Makati and also shared his reaction about the logos. Somehow, he understands the reaction of those initially mocking the change in logos.
Well, it was about time. The last time PLDT changed logos was way back in 1996 and it was just a colored version of their 1983 logo.
As for the design, there were a lot of people who were making fun of it. It did not help that during the launch nobody cared to explain what the new logos mean.
Based on the press kits that they gave us, the logos are shaped like a triangle and each side represents the company’s business pillars—exceptional people, meaningful innovations, and customers. Some people thought that the design was too simple and it is similar to some existing logos.
I am not really into elaborate logo designs because I believe that values and performance are way more important than brand design to turn a logo into a brand.
PLDT and Smart have the track record to make those simple triangles into a formidable brand in the Philippines and I am confident that they will be a trailblazer in the digital segment. In a year or two, those triangles will be on the Wifi modems, pocket wifi, landlines, mobile phones and future gadgets of millions of Filipinos.
Ian Fuentes of Pinoy Metro Geek finds the change in logos to be positive. As he wrote on this blog post:
“….we could expect greater optimizations from both wireless and wired services allowing customers to have a wide range of services to choose from.”
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