This story was originally published in the 2024 Winter issue of strategy magazine

By Brendan Christie

Bell occupies a unique place in the Canadian media landscape. 

As one of Canada’s largest communications companies, it exists on the cutting edge of technology. But it’s also a brand with roots that stretch back to a patent issued to Alexander Graham Bell in 1877. And, really, it’s not just one entity, it’s a collection of strong individual brands that coexist under an umbrella that manifests in different ways across the country. This is not a brand for the faint of heart.

 Making sense of it all is Devorah Lithwick, Bell’s SVP and chief brand officer. Lithwick oversees all brand and marketing communications activities, including Bell’s digital and social media platforms, corporate and product advertising campaigns, as well as sponsorship and events programs.

Lithwick joined Bell in 2006 as VP of marketing communications, becoming SVP of brand for Bell in 2017. She arrived in time to play a role in what has become one of the most important evolutions in the brand’s history. In fact, Lithwick calls 2008’s “Today Just Got Better” platform the “north star” that her team and the broader comms group continue to follow to this day. And, as a position that’s built on service – focusing on how interactions with the brand should always make a customer’s day better, she explains – you’d be hard-pressed to think of a reason to stray from it. 

Lithwick has steered clear of making sweeping changes to Bell’s branding over the years, favouring holistic consistency and being purposeful with its creative, such as this billboard simply promoting “Canada’s fastest Internet and WiFi.”

But that’s not to say the brand has stagnated over the years. There’s just been more evolution than revolution. “It’s about how we get a little bit more purposeful and still drive the holistic consistency of that platform,” she explains. “How do we better leverage our assets and our sponsorships?”

Asking those sorts of questions led to the creation of Bell for Better in 2021 – an umbrella that covers the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives – and a series of new and engaging ways to tell stories. But Lithwick is cautious about change for change’s sake. For her, the real secret to Bell’s success lies in its consistency. 

“When things are struggling, sometimes the brand is the easiest place to look,” she says. “It’s easy to say, ‘Well, you really need to refresh the brand.’ But I think that, organizationally, we are strongly led by our brand philosophy. We see benefit and relevancy in the platform that we’ve established. There have definitely been tweaks over time, but I see the brand as on a bit of a trajectory.”

Bell is an historic brand with an established consumer segment, she explains, so consistency remains the critical driver. But don’t expect a one-size-fits-all approach. On the Virgin side of the house, for example, change was exactly what was needed. So, in 2023, the Virgin brand underwent a visual transformation and messaging shift to better align with an updated service offering and wider target audience. 

Virgin’s “Obviously” master campaign brought humour to the brand while also portraying it as an affordable option for Canadians.

“We saw a greater opportunity,” explains Lithwick of the decision. “We were looking at the broader marketplace to expand our target audience [and go] beyond what Virgin initially was when we launched in Canada – more of a youth-focused, edgy brand. Given that we widened the aperture of who we wanted to attract, we felt it was an opportune time for us to change the visual look and feel.”

The decision was made to drive a more value-price message and reinvigorate the brand with fresh creative. The end result was the “Obviously” campaign from Zulu Alpha Kilo. 

While, at press time, the campaign was pulled by Virgin out of respect of the sudden passing of actor Andre Braugher (who worked as a spokesman for the brand), the work resonated thanks to its humour and quirkiness, and widened the lens to speak to Canadian consumers of all ethnicities (in five different languages), with agencies Lg2 and Dyversity handling the French, Hinglish and Chinese-language versions of the platform. “Obviously” highlighted a simple value proposition for the brand: that it offers affordable, unlimited nationwide 5G data for Canadians in today’s difficult economic climate.

And perhaps, after consistency, simplicity is the second golden rule. Lithwick says that while good creative like “Obviously” is partially instinctual – she feels it in her gut when it’s right – the greatest creative ideas are usually the simplest; the ones in which the messaging is clear.

But ask any yogi and you’ll find that clarity isn’t something that just magically appears. It’s only realized through a slow and thoughtful process, and the Bell team takes a very meticulous and structured approach when it comes to its work.  

Lithwick does weekly brand reviews with the team, looking at everything from SMS messages right up to big TV campaigns. Then there are annual agency reviews, during which, she says, “we put everything up on the wall, and honestly talk with each other on what works and what doesn’t, where we have gaps and where we need to make refinements.” 

The process involves a lot of conversation and debate, but all final decisions filter through a small leadership team. “When fewer people are making the final decisions, you drive consistency,” she explains. “If you start to say, ‘Well, this business unit is responsible for their work, and it doesn’t get reviewed by a centralized brand office,’ that’s where the brand starts to fray.”

Lithwick is a key architect behind the Bell for Better platform, which acts as an umbrella for the brand’s ESG work.

The team also doesn’t like leaving anything to chance, that’s partly why Bell brought media buying in-house. It just made sense, says Lithwick, given the amount of first-party data the company has access to. “It allowed us to not just be more agile given the competitive nature of the business we’re in, but also to better leverage the data that we have to be more strategic and nimble in our digital media activity,” she explains, noting that it also allowed the team to find savings and enhance productivity. 

Beyond her day-to-day, Lithwick has also been a key driver behind the aforementioned Bell for Better. The initiative works under three key pillars – communities, workplace and world – with programs that have included partnerships with entities like Skateboard Canada, Swimming Canada and others. 

“Bell has worked with many causes and groups over the years, but it wanted to establish an appropriate umbrella for all of our ESG work,” Lithwick says. 

“[Bell for Better has] been a fantastic initiative in terms of an upper brand funnel. It allows us to tell the story a little bit more clearly to consumers and businesses alike,” she explains. “It’s making a difference, and we’re seeing positive brand attributes increasing for those who are familiar with our program.”

One of the company’s most established initiatives, “Bell Let’s Talk,” began back in 2010. While it started as an effort to reduce the stigma around mental health issues, in 2023 it evolved to talk more about the associations that Bell supports. Lithwick calls that a “good news story” as the need in the space has progressed beyond simple awareness.

“Now it’s about how do we affect positive change in a world where people are more open?” she says. “How do we engage more awareness about the need for support? How can you help yourself and others?”

The brand started to use the activity around “Bell Let’s Talk Day” to continue amplification of the partners in the mix. What you’ll start to see as we head into 2024 is us handing over our megaphone to allow for the various associations that are doing good in the community to talk about what they do.”

The Bell Inbound Assist is a newcomer grant program done in partnership with the Toronto Raptors.

In November, Bell and the Toronto Raptors kicked off a new partnership via the Bell Inbound Assist program, a three-year commitment to highlight the positive role basketball can play in helping newcomers feel at home in Canada. Earlier this year, Bell also partnered with Total Mom Pitch, Canada’s largest small business grants program. Expect growth on the ESG front to continue.

As for what comes next for the Bell brand, writ large, Lithwick says she’s as excited as anyone to see what the future holds. 

“For me, it’s about how we leverage our brand to continue to deliver compelling storytelling, and convey to consumers that we’re the better choice,” she explains. “Part of what I love is the fact that I always have to manage change, and the business is so unpredictable. My focus might be materially different tomorrow.”