When global energy giant Shell decided to sell its New Zealand retail assets, the biggest question was what to call the new network. Should they keep the world-famous name and continue to pay a license fee for the Shell brand, or go out on a limb and create a new brand for the New Zealand-owned petrol retail distributer?

A name doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, a name can be very short indeed – if people connect with it, if it means something to them that they value and if it stands out from the crowd. In the end, we recommended that a company that saw itself as a world-class Kiwi company needed an element of New Zealand in its name. And that’s how we developed Z Energy, now known and recognised across the country as ‘Z’.

The simple and dynamic Z of Z Energy’s identity represents the infinite journeys taken by Kiwis every single day. With its confident warm colours, Z’s visual identity radiates a warming, positive, sunrise feeling. It’s also instantly recognisable for drivers, standing out from a distance and standing up as a trusted brand.

When one of the founding partners of Z chose to sell their stake in the company this year, their profit from the transaction amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. The investors were adamant that the successful implementation of the Z name had boosted their return considerably.