Transforming a global entertainment brand in a complex environment

Issue

Despite its global scale as one of the world’s top five mobile game publishers, Aristocrat Digital was not a well-known brand in the industry. If they were known, it was for their roots as a creator of slot machines. This left them at a huge disadvantage as they looked to attract top talent and new investment from equity markets, on top of growing their collection of gaming studios. Through brand strategy and design, Aristocrat Digital needed to establish a new identity that would help them stand out in the highly competitive world of mobile gaming. 

In addition, they needed to engage a complex array of executives and team members across multiple continents, and the entire project had to be completed within aggressive timeframes.

Idea

Through our proprietary strategy and design processes (along with our unique participatory approach), we dug deep into the brand to uncover untapped areas of opportunity that could be used to develop unique brand prototypes. With learning from targeted consumer research, we created a new name, a new identity and a new design system that unlocked the excellence, collaboration and playfulness of the brand in a bold and unexpected way. We then amplified this with a new, infinitely customizable logo meant to embody the uniqueness of the brand, its talent, its partners and its games.

Impact

While the project is very recent and the new identity has just been put into market, early pre/post market research turned up two key findings:

• “Does this feel like strong branding for a mobile gaming company?” 28% increase from previous results
• “Does this feel like a strong name for a mobile gaming company?” 19% increase from previous results

Moral of the story

Strong branding has value and meaning beyond that which is perceived by consumers. In the accelerating war for talent and capital, think “stakeholder brand.”