• by Larissa Faw , March 5, 2014

OneSource Information Services is well-known for its expertise in business information solutions, yet in today's Big Data landscape, dominance in one category can hinder a company's growth opportunities. Hence, OneSource is rebranding as Avention -- a combination of Avenue and Invention -- to better reflect its comprehensive fleet of services. Ad shop Gyro helped the client craft its rebranding strategy.

“The dynamics and speed of business commerce today requires a different approach to gathering and interpreting business information for sales, marketing and research professionals to be truly effective at what they do,” said Jonathan Flatow, CEO, Avention.

The name change is complemented with the introduction of Avention SM, an application that delivers “actionable” information by combining the company's proprietary database of business information with other data sources.

For example, realtors are able to receive granular data detailing local businesses that are expanding so they can target those particular companies about moving to bigger locations.

The rebrand follows several other changes at the company in the past two years. OneSource was previously a subsidiary of InfoGroup, and was acquired 18 months ago by private equity partners GTCR and Cannondale Investments, Inc.

Company executives then approached Gyro about developing a new digital platform. After a few creative sessions, the decision was made that Avention needed an entirely new identity.

 "There were two big issues," says Keith Loell, executive creative director, Gyro. "The first was they realized that despite their excellence in the category, there was no perceptible difference between them and their competitors. They have great products and services, but no distinctive, unique property as a brand.”

“The second was the name OneSource itself. It was un-ownable on a global scale and said nothing about who they are or what they do. That's why they were getting calls about military equipment, plumbing supplies and even fashion models."

Now the company has a new name, visual identity, brand platform and an expanded digital presence. Over the coming months, the rebrand will extend to additional channels, including collateral sales materials and direct marketing.