ISIS Rebrand: Preemptive Or Premature?

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

A few months back, when I first began reading about the post-Syrian civil war terrorist faction du jour dubbed ISIS (Islamic State Of Iraq And Syria), I wondered aloud how long it would be before the Isis we cover would respond. Our Isis is the mobile commerce joint venture created by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA, Inc. and Verizon Wireless, to date the most influential proponent of the mobile wallet concept.

More recently, I thought perhaps the Isis of our industry might have caught a branding break. The buzz out of Iraq and Syria was that leadership within an emboldened ISIS was postulating that its mission warranted a more global moniker; by June 29, the group officially renamed itself simply the Islamic State. Technically, there’s no more ISIS.

That didn’t stop the mobile wallet-peddling Isis from announcing on July 7 that it will rebrand, precisely due to the association—albeit in name only—with the terrorist group formerly known as ISIS.

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