General Dynamics IT

Below: Before and After Images in Slide Show, Videos, Summary, Credits

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) is a leading government systems integrator. In April 2018 the company acquired IT giant CSRA. Together, the two companies boasted an incredible array of IT services and government experience that needed to be unified under a single brand expression.

We identified a three-fold brand challenge.
• Stand out among long-standing, traditional federal systems integrators in the category (many of which who look and sound nearly identical) and compete with newer tech players who are steadily pursuing large-scale government contacts.
• Meet customer needs for progressive, agile, and strategic partners, which included the need to shift current perception.
• Attract the best talent and retain them, requiring a largely off-site work force feel a sense of connection and loyalty to the GDIT brand.

Through market research surveys, employee and customer focus groups, competitor audits, and immersion interviews with more than 50 GDIT stakeholders, we understood that in order to compete and win, GDIT would have to:
• Strike the balance between past performance and future capabilities,
• Be perceived as more consultative, and
• Change their relationship with their enormous workforce (most of which work remotely, onsite at various government agencies).

The result is a brand that expresses GDIT’s complex capabilities in a new way, reflecting its unrivaled expertise with a sophisticated approach that elevates the role of its employees.

The new brand was applied to organic and paid social media campaigns which launched on day one. Messaging and creative was developed for internal launch to 35,000 employees through seven simultaneous live events and virtual events across the United States. The launch was followed by more than 100 industry events and trade shows, an airport advertising campaign, a DC metro stop campaign, a radio campaign, and a geo-targeted digital advertising campaign. The external campaign garnered more than 280M impressions in 8-10 weeks.

When the brand launched on April 4th, 2019, the impact was palpable. On launch date, the new GDIT.com received 12,000 unique visitors. Since launch, the brand has seen a 358% increase in social media engagement, 5500 new followers on LinkedIn, an average of 105% increase in website traffic, and over 50,000 visits to the newly launched “Brand Central” intranet page.