Prophet

CASE STUDY

M Passport

Designing the first signature family program for Marriott Hotels

Challenge

To capture a greater share of the growing leisure market in APAC, Marriott Hotels needed to shift its reputation from being viewed as reliable business travel accommodations, to desirable family-friendly destinations.

Through research, Prophet found that parents highly value the options for daily activities on their vacation. Even though Marriott Hotels across Asia were offering great activities for kids, the Marriott International brand wasn’t getting credit due to guests not attributing the programming back to the master brand. So, to win with families, Prophet needed to help Marriott Hotels boost its family hotel activities offerings and develop a clearer connection between kids activities and the Marriott International brand.

Solutions

We created M Passport, a program designed to engage and support children as they grow up while giving parents peace of mind that their children are having fun and learning along the way. M Passport is a kids-focused program that provides children with three key benefits – Brilliant Body, Brilliant Mind and Brilliant Heart aligning with the Marriott Hotel brand positioning of “Inspiring Brilliance”.

M Passport comes to life in a gift children receive upon arrival, a “passport” booklet where they collect stamps for completing activities that stimulate Mind, Body and Heart. Activities are categorized under each of the three key benefits, which have a corresponding stamp design. Stamps can then be redeemed for rewards, such as ice cream, cookies or a local souvenir. In addition to the booklet, children receive postcards to draw on and fill out stickers, and buttons to serve as souvenirs of their Marriott stay. The program is available to guests in both resort and urban properties, where the kids’ activities are customized accordingly. In resorts, many activities are done on-site, while urban properties offer a map of the city to allow exploration on property and immersion in the city around the hotel.

We designed a unique visual identity system for M Passport based on its key benefits and Marriott International’s brand positioning ‘Inspiring Brilliance’. The M Passport word mark, combined with the brand font, creates a ‘light bulb moment.’ While staying consistent with the Marriott International master brand, Prophet’s design teams added playful and fun elements through simple line illustrations that showcase local animals, icons and sceneries. The illustration style is based on the simplistic lines of the M Passport logo.

Building on the feedback and learnings from the proof-of-concept program at resorts, the visual identity system has recently been expanded to showcase a broader array of designs for urban properties, including imagery of Owen the Owl, the M Passport program mascot, on location at various historic APAC sites – from Sydney to China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and more.

Results

APAC became the first region to fully roll out this global program, beginning with a proof-of-concept in 2018, and now expanding to over 20 properties across APAC. The program has distributed over 15,000 copies of M Passport to Marriott’s little guests, generating 6,210+ M Passport package room night bookings, and driving more than 137.4 million total impressions and over 18.7 million reach. M Passport plans to roll out further across additional urban properties in 2021.

Impact

15k

Copies of M Passport delivered

6k

M Passport package room night bookings

CASE STUDY

MB Bank

Creating and launching a new brand to tell MB’s transformation story

Challenge

In 2018, MB Bank (Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank), one of the largest financial groups in Vietnam, initiated a multi-year transformation program in partnership with Prophet, to become a digital-first, customer-centric bank with an ambitious goal of aggressively growing its customer base.

After in-depth customer research, MB learned that it was seen as dated and uninspiring. The bank needed a more modern and fresh brand to attract new customers.

The bank’s hallmark 25th anniversary in November of 2019 presented the perfect opportunity to launch the new brand, reflecting the bank’s transformation to become more modern, digital and customer-centric.

Solutions

In line with their ambition, we developed a new brand platform that captured the essence of MB’s transformation to be a modern bank that enriches the future of people and businesses. The new brand is anchored in the promise that customers will get access to banking that is innovative, trustworthy and as convenient as possible. We also created a tagline to sum up the essence of the new brand: Intelligent Banking. Enriching Your Future.

In parallel, Prophet also created a new logo and designed a comprehensive visual system with key assets to bring the new brand to life.

We then worked with MB and local partners to plan and launch the new brand in the market. We designed a suite of internal assets to educate and generate excitement among employees, including an internal website, posters, videos and photobooths. We also supervised the creation of an external advertising campaign, including a brand video and OOH assets to be displayed throughout Vietnam through strategic media planning.

Results

Following an internal rollout to inspire and educate employees, the MB Bank rebrand was then officially launched to the public on the day of MB’s 25th anniversary, marking the next chapter of their growth on their journey towards transformation.

MB Bank was awarded ‘Most Improved Bank of the Year’ for its refreshed brand platform along with two other awards at The Asian Banker Vietnam Awards 2020.

Our work with MB Bank was awarded gold at the 2020 Transform Awards Asia for “Best Brand Development Project to Reflect a Change of Mission/Values/Positioning”.

“We are delighted to have a trusted strategic partner in Prophet and they have played a crucial role in our very important transformation journey as we evolve towards becoming a digital-first bank.”

Mr. Thai
CEO, MB Bank

Impact

48.8%

increase in revenue in 2021

23.4%

increase in ROE in 2021

8.3m

newly acquired customers in 2021 and 2022

CASE STUDY

MeUndies

Applying consumer insights to fuel the next wave of growth

Challenge

MeUndies, the subscription-based D2C underwear and loungewear company, grew from an idea to a powerhouse brand in the eight years since its launch, having sold over 12 million pairs of underwear to date. While the growing company had a passionate and loyal customer base, they were looking to strategically acquire new customers, while staying true to their brand values and mission of fueling authentic self-expression.

Solutions

Prophet worked with the cross-functional leadership team at MeUndies to develop a holistic profile of the consumer segments in MeUndies’ addressable market across the U.S.

Through this process, we uncovered key insights about which target segments presented the largest growth potential and the best fit to the brand’s unique DNA. Prophet also discovered important findings on how to avoid alienating the existing loyal customer base.

Once the segments and targeting strategy were identified, Prophet worked alongside MeUndies to kick off a cross-functional committee to implement the insights across the brand & marketing strategy, growth/channel strategy, retention, UX/UI, product and analytics teams. Across the organization, the target persona became a focal point in all strategic, technical and metrics-driven conversations. Simultaneously, a segment-typing algorithm was applied to tag both new and existing customers with their segment designation, which then systematically enabled targeted product testing, messaging and digital touchpoint executions.

Results

Based on the insights from the customer journey maps and segmentation, MeUndies finessed their product, marketing, and experience strategies to more effectively drive growth with target customers, resulting in a shift of the media buy budget. After implementing Prophet’s work, MeUndies’ new customer acquisition accelerated in double digits year over year.

CASE STUDY

Marriott

Creating a unique story and identity for Man Ho

Challenge

Marriott was looking to drive the reputation and revenue of Man Ho, its signature Cantonese restaurant in JW Marriott and Marriott hotels throughout Mainland China and Hong Kong. The restaurant needed a signature look and feel to help differentiate itself from other popular hotel restaurants. Prophet was tasked with creating a unique brand story and a refreshed visual identity to articulate Man Ho’s unique proposition.

Solutions

Prophet started by conducting interviews with the head chef and other key stakeholders to identify unique traits that aligned with Man Ho’s aspirations. Through an iterative approach, we developed a new brand positioning and story for Man Ho that was inspired by the idea of taking diners on a culinary journey through time, with Cantonese dishes that have been cultivated and refined from one generation to another.

The positioning was brought to life through a refreshed logo and identity system which juxtaposes tradition with contemporary color combinations. The bird-and-key logo represents the ancient carrier bird that transported messages and ideas from one person to another to symbolize the journey that the recipes have been on.  This is a strong symbol, representing how Man Ho unlocks the secret behind the ingredients that elevate Cantonese cuisine.

Prophet also art-directed professional photoshoots with real-life chefs at Man Ho to curate a set of photography that tells the stories behind Man Ho’s food. Visual applications and brand guidelines were also developed to ensure consistent execution of the brand identity.

Results

The new Man Ho brand positioning and visual identity is in the process of being implemented in properties across Mainland China and Hong Kong.

Our work with Marriott’s Man Ho was awarded bronze at Transform Awards Asia-Pacific 2019.

CASE STUDY

Moneyfarm

Helping a robo-advisor expand to new markets

Challenge

Moneyfarm, one of Europe’s largest digital wealth management companies, had its sights set on entering the German market. When Allianz Global Investors bought a stake in the robo-advisor, the two companies set plans in motion to launch a new multi-asset product in the local market following demand from digitally-native savers and investors.

Prophet was enlisted to facilitate this expansion and to harvest the potential of Moneyfarm’s move into Germany and beyond.

Solutions

We set to work developing an intuitive way to communicate the benefits of this integrated partnership.

The goal was to establish an endorsed brand architecture solution that maximized positive equity transfer between the traditional financial services brand and the fintech start-up; leveraging Allianz’s solid reputation and high awareness in the German market and Moneyfarm’s strong tech and innovation credentials.

We then worked to craft and distil a value proposition and go-to-market strategy specifically tailored to the needs of German customers and the products available to them. Communicating the unique benefit of active returns at passive prices delivered by human expertise with robo-advisory efficiency and precision.

Results

Armed with a brand and strong value proposition that clearly communicates the strategic alliance, Moneyfarm is well on its way to achieving its growth plans. Just one month after its launch in Germany in June 2019, Moneyfarm saw a significant jump in client activation and investments of over one million.

Not only is Moneyfarm well on its way to achieving its growth plans in this new market, it’s also broadening the availability of digital wealth management in a cost-effective and accessible structure.

“Prophet helped us at this crucial moment in our company’s history as we looked to define and execute the right strategy to realize our growth ambitions.”

Giovanni Daprà
Co-founder and Chief Executive at Moneyfarm

CASE STUDY

PagerDuty

Positioning the brand for its next stage of growth

Challenge

Since its founding in 2009, PagerDuty had grown from an on-call management tool for developers to a company-wide platform for real-time operations indispensable to teams in DevOps, IT Ops, Security, and Business and Industrial Ops. The company’s user-centric product innovation, 300+ platform integrations and product leadership in on-call management and incident response had earned it a loyal community of core customers. But as it began to approach the capital markets to help fund its next stage of growth, PagerDuty needed to clarify its corporate positioning in order to establish relevance with enterprise buyers, new technology partners and the analyst community to help “future-proof” the brand as the company innovated in event intelligence, visibility and analytics.

Solutions

Prophet developed a range of hypotheses for PagerDuty’s corporate positioning by considering inputs ranging from traditional sources (competitive audits, product deep dives, category expertise) to sources unique to PagerDuty’s culture and ethos (customer celebrations at its annual Summit). The CEO and leadership team were incredibly engaged in the process because they truly believed that the positioning needed to be anchored not just in the value PagerDuty delivers to customers, but also in the shared interest that the company and its customers have to improving the everyday experiences and lives of people on its platform. Prophet worked with the PagerDuty team to craft a positioning recommendation anchored in both customer insight and company values, and to define a category – Digital Operations Management – that PagerDuty could own, shape and win as it achieved its growth over the coming years.

Results

The corporate positioning was activated in Q2 2019 as a key input to PagerDuty’s S-1 filings and analyst communications prior to its April 2019 IPO. The positioning and has acted as a clear, concise and compelling frame of reference in conversations with new Enterprise buyers and with new teams at existing customer accounts. It has helped favorably expand buyers’ perceptions and understanding of PagerDuty’s core, emerging and planned customer-centric innovations.

CASE STUDY

Poly

Creating the “We’re a go” digital campaign

Challenge

When the words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” were uttered, they were heard by millions of Americans through Plantronics audio.  To celebrate its part in Apollo 11’s spaceflight on the 50th Anniversary of this momentous event, Poly asked Prophet to create a campaign that would connect their past to the present, and the Poly and Plantronics brands together.

Solution

Working as an integrated team, Prophet crafted three campaign concepts before selecting one to build into a multi-channel campaign. Executions included a microsite, paid and organic social media posts including video, display advertising and materials for a gala event and launch at the NYSE.

Results

The campaign far exceeded the goals established by Poly – with more than double the number of social engagements and over five times the number of views on the microsite. Together we built a powerful, engaging campaign that shared Poly’s unique story and relentless relevance 50 years later.

In Nov. 2019, the Prophet team won two North America Transform Awards for their work with Poly.

  • SILVER award for ‘Best corporate rebrand following a merger or acquisition’
  • BRONZE award for ‘Best visual identity from the technology, media and telecommunications sector’

Five Wins at the North America Transform Awards

CASE STUDY

Samsung

Fusing insights & design to supercharge sales

Challenge

Innovation has always been the core driving force at Samsung – ensuring the brand not only keeps its spot as the market leader in technology and sales but also continues to push boundaries as a visionary pioneer of IoT, AI and 5G powered products and ecosystems.

Samsung’s annual EU Forum, its flagship event in the region, brings retail partners together to showcase its newest smart products and thought leadership. Each year, Prophet develops the strategic direction and supporting material for this high-profile event. In particular, the Prophet team was tasked to highlight the strides Samsung had made over the past year, better understanding what convinces or stops real people from getting on board with smart technology and showing how Samsung’s superior connected products cater to these needs to make life that little bit simpler.

Solutions

Prophet developed the storyline for the three-day event around the theme ‘Reinvent Convention.’ As well as developing the agenda and session content, Prophet fused insights and creativity to create and design a highly visual, 80-page print and digital magazine filled with Samsung’s valuable thought leadership. The magazine included cutting-edge trends, real consumer stories documenting how people actually live with their tech day-to-day and expert interviews on the future of technology.

Merging the impactful with the playful, bold magazine design was reflective of breaking boundaries, challenging conventions and re-inventing for the better.

Results

As the tech industry gets even more crowded it’s important for Samsung to consistently demonstrate leadership in the space. Enhancing Samsung’s reputation, the magazine has become a key asset for the business that not only inspires the uptake of innovative, user-centric Samsung products and services from retailers but also improves business processes by continuing to work as an effective tool to engage decision-makers and guide sales conversations.

Having now driven the 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions, the impact and reach of the thought leadership continues to grow. Beyond the EU Forums and other European events throughout the year, the magazine is also used extensively within the organization to educate and inspire Samsung employees.

CASE STUDY

DB Schenker

Defining a purpose with the power to transform

Challenge

For more than 145 years, DB Schenker has been supporting industry and trade in the global exchange of goods. With a commitment to continuous innovation, and in order to keep its place as the global industry leader, over the years the German logistics firm had merged and acquired numerous businesses to facilitate this success and growth. However, the mash-up of cultures resulting from this activity was impacting performance. Prophet was enlisted to develop a strategic purpose for DB Schenker that would unite is 76,000 employees around the world, guide actions and connect stakeholders.

Solutions

Working with the management board and the next generation of leaders, we developed a powerful, motivating purpose statement articulating what DB Schenker stands for and their ambition to become an innovative market shaper in logistics:

‘We advance businesses and lives by shaping the way our world connects’, revolves around the contribution each DB Schenker employee makes in running the global operations of thousands of businesses and the impact that has on improving their customers’ lives. One large customer, for example, relies on hundreds of DB Schenker employees – situated worldwide – to move its products around the globe, to retail stores, and into people’s homes.

To bring the new purpose to life and drive DB Schenker’s culture transformation, Prophet also developed a set of supporting values rooted in the firm’s over 145-year-old heritage they are designed to guide how people go about doing their work and decision-making across all levels of the business.

Results

Launched as part of DB Schenker’s global employee engagement program #weareschenker, the new purpose and values were well-received by the thousands of employees and continues to be a huge source of pride bolstering the brand and the business alike. DB Schenker is already seeing results, with public recognition from the industry, named the ‘Best Logistics Brand in Germany’, a testament to how the business utilizes its decades of experience and expertise to always provide customers with the best solution.

CASE STUDY

Suning International

Creating an immersive social commerce experience

Challenge

Best known for their mass-market electronics stores, Suning’s brand was limited in terms of its perception and stretch. They saw an opportunity with their Suning International group to create a new innovative brand that would not only be attractive for their new customer but also help to elevate perceptions of the group itself as being more pioneering and innovative.

The company approached Prophet to define a clear brand philosophy and retail experience concept for Suning International’s O2O offering. The concept would be launched as a pop-up exhibit for Salon del Mobile Milano Exhibition in Shanghai, debuting the upcoming store concept.

Solutions

Prophet worked closely with Suning International to help develop an innovative experience and optimize its brand strategy towards the global market. We created a philosophy around a global community of curators, who believe that life should be culturally enriching, openly inspiring and actively shared. The exhibition design brought this idea to life as ‘Issue:01 – Found goods from Italy’, a lenticular hallway of inspirational products, curated video and multi-sensorial experiences, which documented a day in the life of two global citizens and their daily experiences in Italy.

“We’re responding to a new generation of consumers who love to discover and experience new things and share their finds with others. With the rise in global travel and access to more products and experiences than ever before from around the world, we want to create a brand and platform that empowers this global community of curators. We are bringing together select items of substance, from around the world, that will bring small moments of joy to everyday life,” said Young Kim, partner and executive creative director at Prophet.

Results

Within the exhibit, visitors could collect and share their own personal online journal of products and stories through a WeChat mini program that showcased the seamless O2O journey that Suning International offers.

The Suning International concept debuted in November 2018 in Shanghai, generating significant media interest and visited by over 22,000.

Our work with Suning International was awarded bronze for ‘best brand experience’ at Transform Awards Asia-Pacific 2019.

CASE STUDY

COLMO

Designing a simply extraordinary brand of smart home appliances

Challenge

Midea Group approached Prophet to create a new premium home appliance brand for an upcoming range of smart, connected kitchen products. Planned as a standalone brand, the opportunity was open to create a new name, strategy, story and visual look and feel.

Solutions

Prophet defined the essence of the brand as ‘Simply Extraordinary,’ a big idea that captured the philosophy of highly crafted products that are effortlessly simple in delivering an extraordinary user experience.

With this idea in mind, Prophet created the name ‘COLMO’, derived from the Italian for ‘summit’ or ‘crown’ to highlight the ambitions and quality of the brand and to add some international, European flavor.

The visual identity is also born from this idea, with an abstract crown symbol and elegant matching wordmark. Color is used sparingly to create a modern, sophisticated look with contemporary iconography and typography to support product descriptions and features.

Results

COLMO was unveiled in October 2018 on Mont Blanc and launched its first range of beautifully designed, award-winning products in December. It was launched at AWE 2019 (Appliance and Electronics World Expo) in Shanghai, showcasing a full new range of 13 Kitchen appliances.

Our work with COLMO won four awards at Transform Awards Asia-Pacific 2019, including Gold for ‘best visual identity’, Silver for ‘best strategic or creative development of a new brand’, Bronze for ‘best naming strategy’, and a Highly Commended award for ‘best creative strategy’.

CASE STUDY

FORA

From co-working to pro-working

Challenge

London is leading the global market in the co-working sector. With over 1,000 spaces, the competition is intense. After investing close to £400 million to acquire a number of striking buildings across central London, Brockton Capital, the investor behind Camden Lock, Curzon Street and Realpubs, was ready to bring something new and unique to the market. They engaged Prophet to identify a gap in the co-working space that Brockton could uniquely fill and to achieve new growth opportunities within an already crowded market.

Solutions

Prophet moved beyond the hipster, t-shirt and jean crowds of WeWork to a new professional or ‘pro-working’ space that goes beyond just supplying a desk. The spaces offer a more curated, members’ club approach to cater to a different kind of co-working clientele. The solution reimagined the brand experience and redefined what the term co-working could mean with premium hotel-style hospitality, destination restaurant, lobby bar, yoga studios and tech-enabled boardrooms.

“We started by speaking to the people that matter most – those potential customers who would be using the space – to begin the journey of developing the relevant value proposition and customer experience to address their needs,” said Gregg Finlay, Associate Partner and Creative Director at Prophet. “Extensive research and insights led us to the simple truth that became the core and driving force behind the brand: space to be brilliant.’’

From these insights came the inspiration for the name we developed: FORA. A Latin word and plural of ‘forum’- where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.

Results

From developing the name to defining the brand identity and superior value proposition, the FORA brand clearly differentiates itself from its competitors by standing out as a working space for high-achieving professionals across industries. It has become the fastest growing player in the co-working space, expanding its locations in London and beyond as customers champion the premium experience.

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