CASE STUDY

Josun Palace

Creating a luxurious hotel brand under a winning portfolio

Challenge

Established in 1914, Josun Hotel has become an exemplary brand in hospitality, transforming into the current Josun Hotels & Resorts yet maintaining the original “First & Best” mentality that it originated with.

In a market where new entrants have raised the bar on luxury hospitality, Josun Hotels & Resorts wanted to position its brands at the forefront of hospitality experiences in South Korea. It was in the process of separating from the Starwood Hotels brand and came to Prophet for help creating an independent portfolio of brands.

Solutions

Our teams first defined a winning portfolio by sizing the South Korean travel market and conducting customer segmentation. With a hybrid brand architecture, we went on to create relevant flagship brands, with Josun Palace being the luxury namesake label. We focused on its flagship offerings and aimed to redefine the luxury and lifestyle hotel experience in Korea. 

Our brand strategy was built to appeal to the sensibility and finesse of Josun Palace’s target audience – “The Cultured Connoisseur.” To speak to this audience, three experience principles were created from Josun’s unique DNA and heritage but also focused on remaining relevant to today’s and tomorrow’s target consumers. The “Josun Touch” principal marks Josun’s quality service standards that guests have always come to expect. The “European Sophistication” principle demonstrates how the brand has always been inspired by global design, culture and lifestyle while providing a comfortable introduction to the Korean travel market. The “Timeless Innovation” principle demonstrates that good experiences with high-end technology should be felt but not seen.

We then developed a draft of a future-state guest experience map to guide a focused collaborative exploration of potential signature touchpoints. This was followed by a hierarchy containing distinct levels of signature experiences.

With this in place, the three principles came to life in the creation of a bespoke and crafted crest symbol that brings the unique heritage and symbology of Josun in perfect balance with sophisticated European visual cues. The symbol reflects the premium stature for its luxury brand with a custom modernized serif logotype that highlights the iconic Josun name, referring to Korea’s royal dynasty.

This modernized classic logo is supported by a light and modern set of visual elements including a sans serif typeface, P22, in a variety of weights along with lighter pastel color palette and graphic elements that complement the strong logo and its chiseled font.

Results

The rejuvenated Josun Palace was launched in May 2021, welcoming guests around the world and elevating its customer experience across all touchpoints. The optimized portfolio and architecture strategy has maximized revenues across the group’s existing brands. Additionally, the portfolio strategy left room for future growth, enabling the group to effectively add new brands in support of local expansion.

The new brand identity of Josun Palace encapsulated the key essence of the hotel’s heritage while ensuring that it was distinctive in its own way among other flagship brands. Prophet was successful in launching a prestigious brand with five-star reviews and part of the Marriott Autograph collection.

And, our work with Josun Palace was recognized by Transform Magazine in the Transform Awards Asia 2022, winning bronze for the category of Best Visual Identity from the Sports, Travel, Leisure and Tourism Sector. It also was mentioned as highly commended for the Best Creative Strategy category.

CASE STUDY

SPI

Burnishing a value proposition for a medical technology brand

Challenge

SPI, an innovative start-up in medical technology, is transforming the surgical experience, helping teams choreograph workflows and analytics in the operating room. Now a part of Johnson & Johnson, the fast-growing, young company needed to clarify its value proposition. It also wanted a brand refresh to show a relevant, robust and consistent face to its complex network of partners and customers.

Solutions

To better understand this rapidly growing and evolving marketplace, Prophet interviewed the company’s surgical procedures teams, colleagues at J&J and external stakeholders, including surgeons and hospital purchasing experts. We complemented these interviews with creative and problem-solving sessions in addition to research into the surgical software and MedTech landscape, including an analysis of competitors. Next, we dug into many possible trajectories of the surgery and robotics industry.

Our team then developed a new brand promise: “Transforming surgery. Enabling teams to excel.” This promise enables SPI to differentiate itself in market and speak to the company’s pioneering technology and the benefits the organization provides its surgical teams. We partnered this with a supporting value proposition, product architecture and naming approach that better conveys features while remaining flexible for SPI’s fast-growing catalog of products.

This strategic work was the foundation from which we built a brand identity that reflects SPI’s vision of surgical excellence. Through multiple iterations and explorative workshops, we created a modern, bold and dynamic brand fit for the fast-moving world of surgical technology.

Lastly, using these new branding guidelines, we created a set of user interfaces for the next version of SPI´s technology, ushering its new identity into the operating room.

Results

SPI has rolled out the new branding internally and externally and is applying the new naming architecture and user interfaces to existing versions and new products. SPI is growing faster than ever, with products helping surgeons operate more efficiently. That results in hospital savings, higher satisfaction among surgical teams and better patient outcomes.

CASE STUDY

Hootsuite

Redefining an iconic social media brand

Challenge

Hootsuite is the leading social media management provider with millions of users around the globe. As the world’s first social media management platform, it has been on the pulse and at the forefront of how people use social media for over a decade. However, since the company was founded, the industry Hootsuite pioneered has expanded and evolved—becoming crowded, noisy and diluted. As social media matured and became an environment of instant feedback, hot takes and influencer culture, conversations around mental health challenges inherent in the space began to bubble up. ​

​Catalyzed by organic growth and key acquisitions of companies like Heyday and SparkCentral, Hootsuite needed to reassert its category leadership while expanding its frame of reference to include growing capabilities around social marketing, commerce and care. It also needed a way to show how it intends to mitigate the negativity and challenges of the channel—using its position as a leader to show a better way forward. As a result, Hootsuite partnered with Prophet to create a refreshed brand strategy and identity. 

Solutions

We started with a robust evaluation of the competitive set, conducting methodical audits in tandem with stakeholder and customer interviews to understand what made Hootsuite’s products and people unique.

Inspired by Hootsuite’s expanding capabilities and its values-driven, positive organizational culture, we identified an opportunity to elevate the entire category of social, dismantling the tradeoff between using social for-profit and social for positivity. ​We crystallized the strategy by articulating a new purpose: “We believe in the power of social to uplift people and ignite brands and business.”  

We designed a refreshed take that would break Hootsuite free from the sea of sameness, both in the way the brand looks and speaks. Hootsuite is a brand that seeks to uplift, amplify and delight, and its longtime icon, Owly, needed to play a critical role in the evolution of the brand. We worked with the team to appoint Owly as Hootsuite’s new chief connection officer, the anthropomorphism of the brand’s tone and tenor.

For the verbal identity, we knew we needed to express the next generation of social maturity in a unique way—by demonstrating Hootsuite’s expertise, not just claiming it. To help Hootsuite stand out in a sea of simple, conversational voices, we leaned into its warmth and personality, largely via Owly, helping its new voice shine with a playful, mischievous edge and a touch of Canadian colloquialism to signal its roots as a Vancouver-based company.

​Visually, we designed an Owly glow-up, expanding  Owly’s appearance—optimized for the logo mark—to a full body with poses. For the first time, Owly could emote, react and empathize, emulating the feelings of both Hootsuite and its customers. We paired Owly’s playful, flat illustration with a funky wordmark (based on “Adieu” by Good Type Foundry) and a daring, nature-inspired color palette. We specifically crafted these core elements to feel human, tactile and warm to buck the glossy, pastel artifice common across the industry. However, this is a modern, visionary brand, so we balanced this friendliness with a sharp, dynamic design system.  ​

Emphasizing rhythm, momentum and transformation, the new system reflects the energy of the social landscape and the positive impact Hootsuite has on organizations, consumers and society. ​

Finally, equipped with the new strategy, visual and verbal identity, we partnered with the Hootsuite team to create value propositions for their emerging capabilities around social commerce and care, bringing the brand’s DNA into cutting-edge new offerings to resonate with existing and new buyers alike.

Results

Hootsuite’s new brand launched to much excitement. Adweek explored the rebrand with a full feature article, while other outlets around the globe from Mexico to Spain and the UK to Australia covered the transformation resulting in millions of brand impressions to date. Hootsuite’s employees are enthusiastically embracing the brand’s new identity, posting on social with a passion that burns bright as they disrupt the industry all over again.  ​

Within 60 days of the brand relaunch, 36 pieces of global earned media coverage have resulted in a total reach of over 10 million unique monthly views. In the same period, the brand’s launch campaign reached 19M unique users, generated awareness with over 1.7M prospects (brand lift), influenced 528 conversations and delivered over 94M impressions.

This award-winning work was recognized by Fast Company in its 2023 Innovation by Design Awards in the Best Branding and Enduring Impact categories and as a Silver winner in the 2022 North America Transform Awards for “Best use of copy style or tone of voice” and “Best brand evolution (business).”

Impact

10M+

unique monthly views within 60 days of brand relaunch

1.7M+

prospects (brand lift) within 60 days of brand relaunch

94M+

impressions within 60 days of brand relaunch

Testimonial

“When we started our rebrand process, we knew we needed a partner that fully understood our objective for this new brand identity–Prophet was able to deliver a strategy that was robust, creative and aligned with our business goals and guiding principles.”

Maggie Lower
Chief Marketing Officer

CASE STUDY

Enotek

Transforming a logistics technology brand for a smart future

Challenge

Eoslift is a Chinese intralogistics solution provider. Since its inception in 2008, the company has evolved from a forklift manufacturing company into a vertically integrated technology company with proprietary hardware, software and smart solutions. For the next way of growth, it aspires to become a leading logistics technology company that provides innovative solutions across a broad set of industries and geographies.

Eoslift came to Prophet to modernize its brand identity to reflect its evolved ambitions.

Solutions

Prophet worked closely with Eoslift to rejuvenate its brand positioning, name and visual identity.

Our team took a holistic approach to rethink Eoslift’s brand strategy through internal and external immersions. Based on conversations with the organization’s key stakeholders, we illustrated the positioning territories and landed on one final positioning direction. Through this thorough process, we created relevant, ownable and differentiated brand positioning that is rooted in the company’s ambition – to maximize business value through innovative technologies.

Next, Prophet helped Eoslift develop a new brand name “Enotek,” signaling a new chapter. Enotek inherits the company’s DNA and culture, core capabilities and commitment to customers. The new name’s starting letter, “E” represents the organization’s commitment to producing products of excellence and excelsior. The “En” represents its goal to envision and enable, while “Eno” and “Tek” represent Enotek’s use of innovation and technology. We also created the brand tagline, “Future Moves Now,” and a compelling brand story to illustrate Enotek’s transformation to its customers and partners.

Anchoring on the renewed brand strategy, Prophet’s Asia design hub then developed a flexible, vibrant and future-forward visual identity that brings the brand’s ambition to life. We retained Enotek’s heritage by keeping a square box and blue color from the original logo, using them as core elements in the new one. The arrow symbol is constructed by connecting a small square with three larger squares to form an “E” – signifying the spark that ignites growth. Lastly, we adjusted the original blue color into a more vibrant tone to inject the young energy of the brand.

Results

Enotek launched its new brand with refreshed strategy, tagline and visual identity in January 2022. The new brand identity empowers Enotek to stay relevant to its customers while setting itself apart from competitors. The company strives to attract new investors and inspire its employees with a redefined vision, unlocking the next stage of growth.

Lastly, our work with Enotek was recognized by Transform Magazine’s Transform Awards Asia 2022, winning gold for the category of Best Visual Identity from the Transport and Logistics Sector and bronze for the Best Brand Evolution (Business) category.

CASE STUDY

Kuraray Paper & Packaging

Creating a compelling, customer-centric brand campaign

Challenge

The Paper & Packaging segment of Kuraray Group, a Japanese manufacturer of chemicals, fibers and other materials, plays a central strategic and commercial role in the organization. But because it functioned in business-unit silos, it often missed opportunities to respond directly to customer needs, cross-sell and collaborate with other business units. Segment leaders hoped that with Prophet’s help and a clarified value proposition, the team could better communicate the potential impact of the integrated Paper & Packaging division. 

Solutions

First, our team researched the industry and competitors, interviewing Kuraray stakeholders and customers to understand perceived strengths and unmet customer needs. This analysis helped identify value proposition themes. We then refined each of these thematic building blocks, combining them to create a differentiated and unified value proposition. 

Next, we developed a holistic brand campaign to allow the company to talk about its many products and cross-sell effectively, and to also elevate the Kuraray brand as a single entity, one with deep expertise, a global network of experts and exceptional innovation skills.  

Our campaign introduced a much-sharper, game-changer Kuraray brand to inspire its customers, using attention-getting visuals that further set it apart from competitors  – and where the company hopes to go in the future. 

To support this new approach, we created strategic tools and assets, such as a sales presentation that all customer-facing employees can use in conversation with existing or potential customers. These tools ensure the new value proposition is implemented consistently and effectively, throughout all levels of the company.  

Lastly, we created a playbook to help employees activate the value proposition and execute the campaign, as well as internal efforts to increase awareness and understanding of Kuraray’s new cross-segment approach. 

Results

The strengthened Kuraray brand is being rolled out across Kuraray’s social and digital channels, as well as industry conferences where it is distinguishing itself from competitors, breaking through the noise and reaching its customers with a consistent message. The company is integrating the new tools into customer interactions, effectively supporting the new Kuraray Paper & Packaging positioning and leading to positive business outcomes. 

“The Prophet team completely immersed themselves in our field, becoming experts on our business and its needs. The work they delivered has been truly transformational and is the uncontested gold standard for marketing communication at Kuraray”

Bettina Plaumann
Head of Communications and Marketing, Kuraray Europe

CASE STUDY

GAINS

Inspiring the next generation of girls with a new messaging strategy

Challenge

Though more women than ever are graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, men make up most of the workforce. This is because many young girls do not pursue a career in STEM, they have more barriers to getting there, they’re traditionally offered less encouragement and they have fewer female role models.

Girls Advancing in STEM (GAINS) Initiative is a nonprofit on a mission to break down barriers by empowering high school girls to envision, prepare for and pursue academic and professional futures in STEM. GAINS’ clubs and conferences tackle this head-on by helping students discover STEM topics and professions, connect with other like-minded girls and learn from industry professionals. To further its mission and expand its impact, GAINS needed a compelling messaging strategy that would resonate with a wide audience to grow its membership and clubs around the country.

Solutions

Drawing insights from a series of qualitative interviews with students and volunteers, we collaborated with the GAINS leadership team to define a new brand strategy framework for the organization. Prophet’s consultants added substantive detail to the framework—developing the context statement, brand promise and overarching theme, which formed the foundation of the work. 

Once these elements were in place, our team of strategists and verbal branding experts built out robust messaging guidelines to reinforce the core components of this newly defined strategy. We created three supporting messaging themes to spotlight the community, learning opportunities and networking benefits of GAINS. Through a rigorous creative process, we codified messaging guidelines to help bring the new strategy to life. The guidelines included sample words and phrases for each theme, guidance on when to leverage each theme and how to flex them by audience (current and prospective students, teachers and volunteers) and tips on how to ensure a consistent tone of voice across all copy.  

Results

The GAINS team has used this messaging across its website, social media channels and marketing materials to target current and prospective students, teachers and volunteers – helping the organization consistently grow its following. In addition, Prophet’s work has helped the organization communicate its mission when applying for grants and seeking partnerships with schools and employers.  

Testimonial

“The whole Prophet team listened really well to everything, caught a lot of the nuance and was able to reflect it back as they structured our messaging materials. Having this all laid out has truly helped me refine the message and maintain consistency in our communications.”

Antoinette Decker
Director, Creator

CASE STUDY

AB InBev

Shaping the vision for a holistic and forward-looking ESG strategy

Challenge

After defining new sustainability commitments, kickstarting various ESG initiatives and building a strong team to further progress, AB InBev needed to develop a vision for its holistic and forward-looking agenda. Without a unifying ambition, ESG would remain a “nice to do” rather than a critical component in the corporate strategy. AB InBev called upon Prophet to help shape a narrative that captured and amplified its bold mission to “Dream Big for a Future with More Cheers.” 

Solutions

Prophet’s multidisciplinary teams started with a 4-week sprint, conducting a workshop to define the scope and depth of the work. In their conversations with the AB InBev team, leaders shared commercial goals and key themes for prioritization, and their linkages to brand purpose. 

Our team then performed an internal audit of AB InBev’s current sustainability programs, in collaboration with subject matter experts, to develop a deep understanding of results to date. Next, we looked outwards, auditing other category-leading peers and reflected on the UN Sustainable Development Goals to extract key themes, define issues and opportunities in the market and establish eight strategic tentpoles for the narrative. We reviewed our findings with the AB InBev team and refined them with our “where to play” and “how to win” framework.  

With these considerations in mind, Prophet delivered a cohesive and impactful narrative for the client centered around a unified, ESG-focused purpose. The narrative was translated into creative copy, visual design assets, narrative video and a brand voice toolkit to effectively bring its story to market. And to ensure that ESG touched every part of the corporate strategy, we developed a robust governance and oversight model for future work. 

Results

The work developed by Prophet captured a bold sustainability vision and ambition that is currently being used to guide internal company behaviors and external go-to-market priorities for AB InBev’s ESG focus themes: “Local, Natural, and Inclusive.” In bringing these issues to the core of its work, AB InBev continues to strive for a more sustainable, equitable and profitable world. 

And, in 2022, our work was awarded Silver for Best Brand Development Project to Reflect a Change in Mission, Values or Positioning in the North America Transform Awards.

CASE STUDY

ReachOut

Creating a new messaging strategy and design aesthetic to help a nonprofit achieve its mission

Challenge

ReachOut is a charity that connects young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with volunteer mentors. Through one-on-one support sessions, these young individuals are provided the opportunity to improve academic skills and expand their aspirations. It also benefits mentors by raising awareness of social inequities. ReachOut struggled with low brand awareness, which hindered funding efforts and mentor recruiting. Messaging and communication strategies weren’t sharp enough and the charity lacked a comprehensive roadmap for reaching mentors, donors and corporate partners.   

Solutions

Prophet worked with ReachOut to dig deeper into all three audience groups, identifying core issues and developing specific goals. On weekly coaching calls, we tracked progress and worked closely with ReachOut’s devoted team to co-create messaging that better articulates what the charity stands for. We also ensured that the values were clearly communicated in messages tailored to each audience.  

Overall, we completed 59 projects and helped ReachOut create inspirational design assets that brought key brand values to life in a tangible, more human way. These assets focus on multiple engagement touchpoints including Instagram, donor and mentor recruitment communications and in-person recruitment events. 

Results

ReachOut’s new design tools and applications are already increasing the charity’s impact on social media channels. As the number of mentors continues to grow, the group has already provided close to 17,000 hours of valuable one-to-one interventions and 35 workplace visits to boost corporate involvement. And with an additional 71 career talks, the organization is finding new ways to reach the people it can benefit most.  

ReachOut’s inspirational messages are contagious, and Prophet is thrilled to say that we’re continuing our work with this motivating organization. We are using our new relationship as a corporate partner to further Prophet’s broader goals of greater diversity and inclusion. In partnering with ReachOut, we hope to hire more individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds in our own internship program, connecting with those who wouldn’t otherwise have access or awareness of the professional services industry. We are also hosting work experience visits, inviting ReachOut participants to learn about a day in the life of a consultant. 

ReachOut isn’t just changing the lives of young people. It’s also benefitting the mentors including us, Prophet employees as we strive to make a lasting difference in these individuals’ lives.

Through Prophet’s pro-bono program, Propheteers lend their expertise to a select group of nonprofits, helping them achieve remarkable results. If you or a nonprofit you know is interested in working with us, reach out today.

CASE STUDY

BOE

Building a new technology brand to empower the global IoT industry

Challenge

To fuel a new wave of strategic growth, leading IoT technology company BOE realized the imminent need to upgrade its master brand strategy. BOE came to Prophet with two key objectives: First, to extend its brand perception from a “business-oriented” company to a “consumer-oriented” one by creating a clear and consistent image as an IoT technology leader; second, it wanted to define a new brand architecture that fuels the growth of its diversified business portfolio. 

Solutions

Prophet partnered with BOE to help upgrade its master brand and refine its brand architecture. Based on our strategic recommendations, BOE decided to launch a new technology ingredient brand – a first in China’s semiconductor display sector – as a significant strategic move to establish itself as a B2B2C company. The new brand aims to strengthen a strong connection between BOE’s core technologies and its master brand while energizing the global smart technology industry.

Through a series of co-creative workshops with BOE’s business and technical teams, we first clarified the brand’s main objectives, core audience, key technologies and activation strategies. Based on these strategic principles, we defined the naming strategy for the new brand.  

We leaned on our previous relationship with BOE and our deep understanding of its business to create product names for its core display technologies as well as the tagline “See the Unseen.” In addition, we worked closely with BOE to clarify the functional and emotional benefits of the new brand and developed a unified positioning framework for the technology brand and its core display technology products to follow. This allowed communication with BOE’s diverse audience in a simple and straightforward way. We also developed the activation strategies for both BOE’s business and consumer audiences

Next, our design team created an impactful visual system, bringing the brand positioning to life through a distinctive identity and a living system. Using the creative concept of “unleash possibilities”, we developed a visual system of dynamic shapes and a high-saturation palette to symbolize the brand’s commitment to deepening the integration of life and technology, unlocking endless possibilities. The design utilizes simple graphic elements of dots and squares. The dots are derived from BOE’s master brand’s logo, representing the company’s ambitious vision, while the squares are meant to mimic screen pixels, symbolizing the innovative technologies that BOE provides to the world. 

Lastly, to ensure the new brand’s successful and consistent implementation, we developed a clear and curated brand guideline, which details the final visual identity, the comprehensive visual system and applications.

Results

In December 2021, BOE officially launched the first technology ingredient brand in China’s semiconductor display field. The new brand introduces a portfolio of BOE’s premium, proprietary display technologies, including ADS Pro, f-OLED, and a-MLED. 

BOE has announced strategic partnerships with both domestic and international technology brands including AOC, Skyworth, Hisense, Lenovo, OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi, to jumpstart the new technology platform. As one of the key components of IoT innovations, the advancements in display technologies will enrich diverse application scenarios. BOE is committed to continuing to lead the industry forward with new innovations that unleash endless possibilities. 

And, our work with BOE earned recognition by Transform Magazine’s Transform Awards Asia 2022, winning gold in the category for Best Visual Identity from the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Section, and silver for Best Development of a New Brand Within an Existing Brand Portfolio and Best Strategic or Creative Development of a New Brand categories.

“With strong diligence and dedication, Prophet demonstrated deep insights into the technology industry and a true understanding of our business. It helped us successfully overcome the roadblocks of rebranding amid a business transformation, elevating our existing brand strategy in a clear and concise manner. All these endeavors were highly effective in repositioning BOE as an IoT company with a refreshed identity system.”

Da Si
Vice President and Chief Brand Officer

CASE STUDY

BOE

Defining a purpose-driven technology brand with a revigorated identity 

Challenge

With nearly three decades of rapid development, leading IoT technology company BOE has become one of the world’s largest semiconductor display providers, producing more than a quarter of the world’s digital screens.  

Though BOE has built a strong brand reputation over the years, its new corporate strategy prompted the organization’s imminent need to upgrade its master brand strategy. BOE came to Prophet with two key objectives: First, to extend its brand perception from a “business-oriented” company to a “consumer-oriented” one by creating a clear and consistent image as an IoT technology leader; and second, to define a new brand architecture that fuels the growth of its diversified business portfolio. 

Solutions

Since 2017, Prophet has been BOE’s long-term strategic partner, supporting the business’s and brand’s continuous growth. Through this relationship, BOE entrusted Prophet with elevating BOE group’s master brand. 

Our team first carried out in-depth interviews with both internal and external stakeholders  – from executives and employees to customers and ecosystem partners. Combining insights with learnings from the benchmark study of leading global technology brands, we identified the core elements that BOE brand needed to retain and build. We then held multiple co-creation workshops with BOE’s core teams and executives to hone in on its brand mission for future growth. As a result, we defined the brand mission to “Change life with heart”, presenting people with a technology brand that’s warm, human and aspirational. 

Anchoring on this core mission, we also clarified BOE’s brand promise and principles. This allowed the client to ensure that its mission was brought to life both in terms of external communication and engagement and internal behavioral codes and actions. 

Our work didn’t end there. We teamed closely with the BOE team to define its brand architecture, a crucial component of a successful brand strategy. The refined brand architecture set the foundation for BOE’s transformation from a single, master brand-led approach to a hybrid architecture powered by master brand and key sub-brands. The new brand architecture better supports the organization’s growth vision across business areas. We then created a comprehensive decision framework to help evaluate where BOE needs to build sub-brands across business, technology and product levels. 

Results

In late 2021, BOE officially unveiled its new brand positioning. Soon after BOE launched its first sub-brand – display technology ingredient brand. With the elevated brand positioning and architecture, BOE continues to accelerate building a connected and symbiotic IoT innovation ecosystem to empower the growth of upstream suppliers as well as the digital transformation of lower-stream partners. Working closely with a network of global partners, BOE strives to push forward a new round of technological disruption to unlock uncommon growth. 

“We partnered closely with Prophet to drive the upgrade of BOE group’s master brand. With strong diligence and dedication, Prophet demonstrated deep insights into the technology industry and a true understanding of our business. It helped us successfully overcome the roadblocks of rebranding amid a business transformation, elevating our existing brand strategy in a clear and concise manner. All these endeavors were highly effective in repositioning BOE as an IoT company with a refreshed identity system.”

Da Si
Vice President and Chief Brand Officer, BOE

CASE STUDY

Vantage

Reinvigorating a Fintech brand to drive growth

Challenge

Founded in 2009, Vantage is a global multi-asset broker offering clients access to services for trading contracts-for-difference (CFDs) on forex, commodities, indices and shares. As competition in online CFD trading intensifies and customer expectations evolve, Vantage’s brand had become less relevant and harder to differentiate. In addition, its visual identity, which served the broker well in the past decade, lacked a clear proposition and emotional appeal.

A business with the scale and ambition of Vantage needs to make sure that its brand expression is not only consistent and coherent globally, but also relevant to both institutional broker (IB) partners and individual retail investors across different markets. Thus, Prophet was engaged to reinvigorate Vantage’s brand with a clear, insights-driven brand positioning and modern, compelling visual identity.

Solutions

Prophet took a hypothesis-led yet rigorous approach to activate Vantage’s internal expertise and explore new external opportunities. By immersing in stakeholder interviews, 360-degree competitor audit, as well as AI-driven customer research, we obtained a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of Vantage, including its ambition to its capabilities, competitors and target customers.

Our strategy team then used these insights to define Vantage’s new brand positioning – to “provide a trusted trading ecosystem that enables customers to achieve their own success, faster and simpler”. Based on the brand positioning, we crafted a messaging framework and the brand voice to guide what the brand says and how the brand speaks. We also simplified its brand name from “Vantage FX” to “Vantage” to better reflect the company’s ambition to be a multi-asset trading platform beyond FX trading.

To bring the strategy to life, our design team built upon the big idea of “Shared Success” and applied the Fibonacci Golden Ratio in creating Vantage’s new visual identity system. The Fibonacci Golden Ratio is not only permeated in nature and art but also prevalent in financial markets – Fibonacci retracement levels are often key indicators to predict market movements. The idea resonates with the brand category and strategy to resemble precision, growth patterns, perfect harmony and concise prediction of patterns in an ecosystem.

To help Vantage envision its new visual identity, we created customized iconography, brand and photography guidelines, as well as a wide range of applications including website and mobile app re-skin.

Results

Vantage launched its new brand globally with a resounding impact.  It was well-received by industry peers at its unveiling in November 2021. The group achieved a significant increase of nearly 30% in new users in three months, compared to the same period before the rebrand.

Vantage was also recognized at the 2021 Transform Awards Asia, for the categories of ‘Best brand development project to reflect the changed mission, values or positioning’ and the ‘Best visual identity from the financial services sector’.

“Our rebranding exercise was the long-awaited change that our business needed, and Prophet was the ideal partner to assist us through the entire process. From the initial interviews to the final reveal of our new brand identity, the Prophet team has been more than instrumental in its assessment and recommendations,” says David Shayer, CEO of Vantage UK.

“The results of the rebrand speak for itself. Removing FX from our name has allowed us to speak more closely to our multi-asset offering, and our new brand puts us closer to our clients who share the same values. With a refocused business direction, we are empowered to continue the work of enhancing our tools and platforms to bring about an unparallel trading experience for our clients.

“The rebrand has also opened doors to some prominent partnerships, including our recent sponsorship of the McLaren Extreme E, which highlights our push for greater sustainability, diversity, and inclusion within the financial services industry in the coming years.”

“From the initial interviews to the final reveal of our new brand identity, the Prophet team has been more than instrumental in their assessment and recommendations.”

David Shayer
UK CEO

CASE STUDY

McAfee

Repositioning McAfee for accelerated growth

Challenge

With innovations like streaming and teleconferencing as well as external trends like COVID-19, people found themselves living more of their lives online—and in turn, looking to find better online protection.

At the same time, McAfee, the global cybersecurity leader, announced it was spinning off its enterprise business to focus exclusively on consumers.

These two realities provided McAfee with a moment-in-time opportunity to redefine what its consumer business stands for and become even more relevant for the people it serves and position itself for accelerated growth.

Solutions

McAfee partnered with Prophet to uncover how it could best become more relevant with consumers. After auditing the competitive landscape and immersing in what made McAfee unique, Prophet conducted research with over 5,000 customers internationally to understand the needs and opportunities where McAfee could play. In our research, we uncovered a white space that customers care about and where McAfee could credibly deliver.

Working closely with McAfee executives, we crafted a new brand strategy, including a more human-centered brand positioning that pushes beyond the category’s conventions. We looked at untapped drivers of purchase to build a brand that focuses on how McAfee’s protection—not just cybersecurity, but identity, privacy and family protections too—frees and empowers people to confidently enjoy their lives online.

We developed a new verbal and visual brand identity to match—crafting a brand voice that is approachable and optimistic, messaging that highlights McAfee’s research-backed strengths and a look-and-feel that is modern and dynamic that can be applied across marketing and product.

Prophet translated the new strategy and identity into a compelling digital launch campaign. The “Free to Be” campaign highlights how everyone deserves to be able to do what they want to do online—that people should be free to learn, free to shop, free to bank, free to connect—confidently and without fear of online threats.

Results

The new strategy, brand identity and corresponding campaign herald the future of online protection—not just for McAfee, but for what consumers should demand from the online protection industry. McAfee will continue to roll out major updates and industry firsts that help consumers stay protected and enjoy life online.

“Prophet became our indispensable ally. They expertly bridged strategy and execution and helped us effectively align our organization around our new brand strategy, which is helping us continue to deliver on the future of online protection.”

Judy Bitterli
SVP of Marketing

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