CASE STUDY

Beflo

Creating an innovative connected desk brand from concept design to activation 

Challenge

With the pandemic resulting in people balancing both work and life activities at home, there was a growing demand for furniture solutions that were more versatile, comfortable, and functional. Our original equipment manufacturer (OEM) client saw the opportunity to create a DTC brand that would deliver a solution to empower people to enjoy a better way of living and working from home. They partnered with Prophet to help create and launch their first consumer brand.

Solutions

With a blank slate, we worked collaboratively with the client to create a brand that would be relevant to today’s working-from-home customer. 

We used an AI-powered online research tool and interviewed 135 potential U.S. customers to understand their unmet needs and expectations around their WFH set-up. Our research revealed critical insights about how consumers need to not only prioritize their physical health but also their interest in a good work-life balance – including ways to optimize all the various parts of their lives.

From this, we created a new brand purpose, “We believe happiness comes from being in the flow in all activities we do at home.” We then created brand principles, tone of voice, and the tagline “Work. Flow. Home” to bring the brand to life in a unique and distinctive way against other competitors. The name “Beflo” came out of the idea of being “in the flow” when everything you do works seamlessly and effortlessly.  

Beflo began developing a desk prototype, combining motorized height-adjustable settings with modular tech accessories around cable management, charging features and other productivity tools. As part of that, we worked with them to create brand principles based on their new purpose that would have implications for their product design.

The visual identity also used the “flow” concept to create a simple and ergonomic-looking logotype with rounded letterforms and the curved ligature between the “f” and “l” that mimicked the side profile of the curve on the desk’s legs.

From this, we created a new brand purpose, “We believe happiness comes from being in the flow in all activities we do at home.” We then created brand principles, tone of voice, and the tagline “Work. Flow. Home” to bring the brand to life in a unique and distinctive way against other competitors. The name “Beflo” came out of the idea of being “in the flow” when everything you do works seamlessly and effortlessly.  

Beflo began developing a desk prototype, combining motorized height-adjustable settings with modular tech accessories around cable management, charging features and other productivity tools. As part of that, we worked with them to create brand principles based on their new purpose that would have implications for their product design. 

The visual identity also used the “flow” concept to create a simple and ergonomic-looking logotype with rounded letterforms and the curved ligature between the “f” and “l” that mimicked the side profile of the curve on the desk’s legs.

Results

The brand concept, name, visual identity and product design successfully came to market in 2023. The branding was recognized in the 2021 Transform Awards as the Best Visual Identity in Technology, Media and Telecommunications. 

Results

The brand concept, name, visual identity and product design successfully came to market in 2023. The branding was recognized in the 2021 Transform Awards as the Best Visual Identity in Technology, Media and Telecommunications. 

Positioning Around the “Flow”

Keeping the target consumer in mind, we developed different brand territories that would be relevant to their needs, and our positioning ultimately landed on the territory of Flow.   

“We believe happiness comes from being in the flow in all activities that we do at home.” 

The flow state was where people could fully immerse themselves in the task at hand and find enjoyment in the present moment. This resonated with the targets’ needs to balance multiple priorities and to find enjoyment in their WFH routine.

Meet Helena.

We developed a creative representation of our target customer who has a desire to improve their WFH set-up, anxiety around balancing all of life’s priorities and a strong interest in interior design resulting in a design-oriented approach to buying furniture. She prioritizes physical health, good work-life balance, success and connection with the community. This helped us imagine all our work with a certain persona in mind.

Applied Brand Principles

We created brand principles to serve as a guide for uniquely delivering on their brand promise. The four principles: Adaptive Comfort, Ultimate Ease, Holistic Wellbeing, and Lasting Innovation were then expanded into tangible guidelines and were applied in both the product design as well as the surrounding consumer experience.

The Visual Concept

The logo and visual system reflect the “flow” concept by embracing an equally weighted, san-serif to not disrupt the eye, but have a balanced and cohesive look. The crafted ligature between the “f” and “l” characters also creates a unique element that creates a visual “flow.” The system consists of the same curved elements that incorporate a soft flow across all communications and visuals, all the way down to the actual curved corners of the actual desk legs.

A Distinctive Verbal Voice

We created tone of voice principles to ensure that all communications had a cohesive tone of voice. Messaging guidelines offered guardrails around practical dos and don’ts as well as messaging examples.

Shopify Design

We created Beflo’s first Shopify design, creating both the site architecture, content hierarchy of each page, and design layout. Everything from imagery style to navigation and input fields was carefully designed to support the new brand.

A Cohesive System

We brought the brand strategy and identity to life by creating a visual system with a unique perspective on photography style, color palette, typography and graphic elements. This unique look created an unmistakable identity across all their applications from product design to digital interfaces and print communications.

Activating the Brand

We created an activation rollout plan to help Beflo navigate the different horizons of growth. We also developed a content marketing playbook to help create compelling and relevant content to attract, engage and convert consumers along the customer journey with recommendations across channels and partnerships to consider.

“Working with Prophet undoubtedly helped us build a rock-solid foundation for our brand; we wouldn’t be where we are without them. The branding groundwork they laid out has been our guiding north star, enabling us to stay focused and coherent with our work.” 

Beico Chiu
Founder CEO, Beflo

CASE STUDY

Financial Services Company

Putting customers at the center of an organization’s transformation

Challenge

A large, US financial services company was seeing declining growth in customer acquisition and revenue. Facing key market forces – including shifting consumer behaviors toward greater collaboration and personalization, new threats from fintech entrants and intense competition for top talent – the C-Suite and Board of Directors decided to embark on a complete transformation of the business.

Solutions

Prophet partnered with the company’s CEO, Chief Growth Officer and leadership team to design a transformation agenda that answered a series of strategic questions around:

  • Developing the organization’s purpose-based strategy
  • Prioritizing key markets and target customers
  • Aligning on key products, services and experiences to develop
  • Building the culture and capabilities required to support the transformation

Prophet then created a multi-year, enterprise-wide roadmap that detailed the initiatives necessary to transform multiple parts of the business in parallel. A Transformation Management Office (TMO) was established to enable and accelerate the company’s three-year transformation, largely through quarterly alignment and funding cycles.

While helping manage the transformation, Prophet brought multi-disciplinary teams to help execute the work across business value drivers: Brand & Marketing, People & Organization, Customer Experience, Products & Services, Sales & Distribution, Data & Analytics.  Along the way, Prophet has partnered to build new capabilities and codify processes so the organization can keep transformation momentum in the years to come.

Results

Prophet successfully launched a new brand that established the financial services provider as a leader in the industry. We helped develop a new employee value proposition to recruit top advisors and a new variable annuity product to grow its existing business. Prophet also introduced new revenue streams by helping expand its mutual funds’ presence on third-party platforms and creating a new managed account product – all while targeting and acquiring new buyer segments.

A year into the customer-centric transformation, Prophet is helping drive results such as +5% market awareness, +8% in new business revenue and a 20X increase in new leads.

Impact

5%

increase in market awareness

8%

increase in new business revenue

20x

increase in new leads

CASE STUDY

CVS Kidney Care

Helping CVS Kidney Care transform to disrupt the renal care industry

Challenge

Nine out of 10 adults in America with chronic kidney disease don’t even know they have it. And for the half a million U.S. patients on dialysis, the vast majority receive treatment in clinics. That means three times a week, four hours a day, away from home. Treatment is physically and emotionally taxing for patients and staying employed is challenging, if not impossible.

CVS Kidney Care knew there was a better way. The business saw an opportunity to transform kidney care in America, delivering a better experience for patients and their caregivers, better clinical outcomes, and an improved cost of care. But to truly disrupt this well-established industry, CVS Kidney Care needed differentiated strategies and high-performing teams that could keep pace with true make-market innovation.

Solutions

Prophet partnered with CVS Kidney Care using the firm’s Human-Centered Transformation Model™, to develop the broad range of capabilities required to be a real disruptive business. The transformation work included customer-centric product management and a creative commercialization capability that could rapidly build and iterate a compelling ecosystem of partnerships, combined with an agile operations organization. All this was also supported by a passionate, make-market culture. Fully integrated Prophet and CVS Kidney Care teams (or “Pods”) worked together, running in two-week agile sprints to break down silos, focus on the patient, caregiver and provider priorities, and dramatically accelerate progress towards seizing CVS Kidney Care’s key opportunities. Together, we collaborated on:

DNA

BODY

MIND

  • Identifying the talent, skills and experience required to scale the business
  • Transferring core skills in creative problem solving, innovation and product development

SOUL

  • Defining a “Culture of Courage” and mobilizing the organization to live the behaviors of a bold market-making CVS Kidney Care team

Results

Within the first year of its transformation, CVS Kidney Care has made clear progress on business outcomes and created a more engaged and productive team. The organization has improved business performance and has a clear growth trajectory. Cultural change is finding traction, and engagement scores within the CVS Kidney Care team have improved significantly. Most importantly, the entire organization is more committed than ever to transforming kidney care for patients and their caregivers.

Additionally, our work received recognition in the 2022 North America Transform Awards, earning Gold for the Best Development of a New Brand Within an Existing Brand Portfolio category.

“As a loyal Prophet customer, I highly recommend that everyone consider using their Human-Centered Transformation Model when seeking to accelerate organizational transformation and drive uncommon growth. There’s honestly no way we could have moved at this pace and achieved these results without a partner as deeply dedicated to truly building our own organizational capabilities. Trust me when I say, it works! – Lisa Rometty, President CVS Kidney Care

“There’s honestly no way we could have moved at this pace and achieved these results without a partner as deeply dedicated to truly building our own organizational capabilities. Trust me when I say, it works!”

Lisa Rometty
President

CASE STUDY

AXA

Meet Emma, the future of humanized insurance experience

Challenge

AXA is one of the world’s leading insurance companies offering diverse financial services globally. To successfully grow its business in Asia, the client recognized the need to create a more consistent and human brand throughout the region.

On the back of a new global vision – from Payer to Partner – AXA partnered with Prophet to develop an Asia-specific solution that would deliver on their ambition to:

  1. create a more consistent customer journey and brand experience across the region
  2. develop a new customer engagement proposition that also humanize the experience through a new digital platform
  3. develop digital touchpoints to drive greater engagement with existing and potential customers.

Solutions

Through deep consumer research and segmentation, Prophet partnered with AXA to create a regional well-being strategy, develop a new customer experience, and run UX & UI sprints to design a new digital product.

We began by conducting a multi-country regional segmentation, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative research across five key markets in Asia (China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand and Japan). Over 4,000 customers were surveyed to better understand what they wanted from an insurance company when it came to their health, well-being and mental health. This research created the foundation for the development of a value proposition that defined the future of digital customer experience (DCX) at AXA.

To bring the strategy to life, we set out to reimagine the customer experience, taking a fresh look at how to create a new insurance platform that combined insurance e-servicing, 3rd party health and wellness digital services and a new conversational chatbot and virtual concierge. Importantly, at the core of this new experience was an empathetic and human approach on well-being topics for customers, elevating the AXA brand on an experience level never attempted at the organization.

From this strategic foundation, Emma was born — AXA’s first humanized user interface, which became the core of the brand’s new digital customer experience. This seamless experience – from claims to servicing, health content, symptom checker, and more – was embodied in a single Emma ecosystem for current AXA customers as well as prospects.

With Payer to Partner at the core of its proposition, Emma’s persona was designed to be an Empathetic Navigator, helping individuals find the solutions and content most relevant to their well-being needs. Prophet further “personified” Emma, crafting a real-life avatar, her tone of voice, and the visual expression across a full identity system.

A key highlight of the process was a two-day Hackathon to create “Emma”. Over 70 global leaders and stakeholders across diverse disciplines gathered together to “hack” the Emma experience. It was the first time in AXA’s history and probably the largest cross geographic collaboration of its kind.

Results

Emma was piloted then launched in Hong Kong in Q4 of 2019.

Emma is bridging the gap between digital engagement and financial advisor partners. As of 1H of 2020, Emma’s launch in Hong Kong drew more than 2 million logins, exceeding expectations. Emma is now being rolled out across the rest of Asia.

The digital brand experience we created for AXA won the gold award for “Best Use of Digital in the Financial Services Sector” at the 2021 Digital Impact Awards Asia, as well as two awards at the 2020 Transform Awards Asia, including a gold award for “Best Brand Experience” and a silver award for “Best Visual Identity” from the financial services sector.

CASE STUDY

MMRF

Developing a direct-to-patient engagement model

Challenge

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) is the largest non-profit in the world dedicated to finding a cure for multiple myeloma, cancer of the blood. To advance its mission, MMRF needed to collect more patient data to identify the right treatment options for each patient. This meant the business would need to build a new, direct-to-patient model, requiring a deeper understanding of their patients to create the right value in exchange for data.

Solution

We partnered with MMRF to launch the MMRF “CureCloud” – an at-home testing kit and digital dashboard displaying personalized treatment options for myeloma patients. We also developed an end-to-end patient experience strategy based on primary research, to identify the right moments to introduce the program, and build a relationship with them over time as patients undergo their journey from diagnosis to remission.

Customer research uncovered that the most important benefits to patients in a partner like MMRF is personalized communication and recommendations in exchange for their data, followed by the prospect of helping the entire multiple myeloma community drive toward a cure. These insights helped us build an engaging CureCloud experience and MVP and product roadmap for the future. As part of this, we refreshed the MMRF website, a primary entry point for patients to learn about their disease and become aware of the MMRF brand before becoming a CureCloud participant.

Going hand-in-hand with a patient-centric experience, the MMRF also needed a brand refresh. We developed a modern look-and-feel, bolder tone of voice and creative marketing platform – ‘Expect More’ – to signal to the market that MMRF has once again elevated expectations of the myeloma community, bringing the innovation necessary to find a cure.

Results

The MMRF CureCloud MVP launched July 14. The revamped website is live and has generated 29,789 unique users in the first month, a 22% improvement in bounce rate and a 6%  increase in SERP. It also won Web Marketing Association’s 2021 WebAward for outstanding achievement in web development. Through our partnership, MMRF has learned how to work in agile to create value through a direct-to-patient, experience-led model.

CASE STUDY

Electrolux TasteOS

Creating digital product and service design for a best-in-class experience

Challenge

As a longstanding partner to Electrolux in their digital transformation efforts, Prophet introduced Electrolux to Innit, a San Francisco-based data food startup, as part of an annual event with Electrolux’s Digital Transformation leadership team. At the event, Electrolux was impressed with Innit’s scalable, software-based connected cooking platform. They decided to pursue a partnership to combine the data-driven world of taste and food (Innit) with physical moments of delight created by best-in-class appliances (Electrolux) that deliver an incredible cooking experience.

Prophet was brought on board as Electrolux’s ‘sparring partner,’ representing the interests of Electrolux and the target consumers’ needs in the design of the connected cooking service experience.

Solutions

Over the course of seven weeks, we did the following:

  • Identified consumer needs and innovation opportunities
  • Brainstormed use cases
  • Developed and prioritized concepts into one MVP experience
  • Defined features and requirements
  • Built storyboards and wireframes
  • Developed a business case and partnership strategy to support implementation.

First, we immersed in the core consumer insights, using existing insights and collaborative workshops to identify unmet needs and pain points across the cooking journey. From there, we turned to competitive analysis, surveying established and new players in the market and identifying where consumer needs overlapped with white space to prioritize innovation opportunities.

Armed with insights on consumer pain points and market opportunities, we brainstormed a series of specific use cases detailing the actions, interactions, and steps consumers want or need to take as part of the connected cooking experience. Armed with these use cases, we identified overlap and ways they might come together into distinct value propositions, bringing to light the offering from both Innit and Electrolux. This resulted in three core concepts, each with its own set of features and front-end requirement considerations.

We then developed sketches, wireframes, and full storyboards that detailed each concept. Two consumer co-creation sessions helped validate and refine our initial thinking around unmet needs and potential solutions in the cooking space.

Once we developed and validated experience concepts, we gathered with all parties for a week-long workshop to finalize the technical requirements of the ideal state experience design. As part of that workshop, we collaborated with the technical teams from both Innit and Electrolux to align on the product roadmap, functional and operational requirements, and necessary delivery capabilities, for the MVP experience. We then identified revenue streams, quantified top-line impact, and provided guidance on key elements of the partnership agreement (e.g. branding, data ownership, etc.) to bring the experience to life.

Results

The joint experience was officially announced in April 2018 at Eurocucina and will be available to consumers starting in Q1 of 2019.

CASE STUDY

Rubix

An award-winning new brand for a leading industrial powerhouse

Challenge

When American private equity firm Advent International merged French industrial supplier IPH with Brammer it marked a major consolidation in the European industrial supplies and solutions market. The combined IPH-Brammer entity presented Prophet with a critical challenge: to create a new brand for this powerhouse to stand out and reach its full market potential.

Solutions

Our team worked quickly to develop a brand strategy to support the evolved priorities and future growth of this newly merged company. Based on the defined brand positioning a name that spoke to the human approach the company adopts to problem-solving was needed, capturing this along with an essence of ingenuity, we landed on Rubix.

We then set about creating a brand identity that would differentiate Rubix from its competitors. In an industry that is widely self-referential, we used storytelling both visually and verbally to stand out from the crowd. Three key brand elements were created to achieve this; a verbal approach that explains how Rubix helps their customers, a brand colour intended to highlight their presence and reach, and a visual device that communicates how they drive their customers’ businesses forward.

Results

With the new brand and go-to-market approach in place, Rubix is uniquely positioned to transform the industry, moving beyond product to become a trusted advisor. Featuring consecutively in the prestigious Sunday Times Top Track 100 in 2018 and 2019 (a league table that ranks Britain’s top private companies with the biggest sales), the reported four percent year-over-year sales growth clearly reflects the successful path the rebranded business is on.

Prophet’s work for Rubix was also acknowledged at the Transform Europe 2020 awards, which recognises excellence in rebranding and brand strategy. Rubix scooped three awards including ‘Best Creative Strategy’ and ‘Best Corporate Rebrand Following a Merger or Acquisition.’

CASE STUDY

Major Payments Provider

Bridging global innovation gaps through digital transformation

Challenge

A major payments technology company had over many years developed a network of 10 innovation centers around the world. Each innovation center was designed and launched by leaders in different geographies and with differing capabilities, operating models and approaches to serving company account teams and their clients.

While some cross-pollination of ideas and frameworks was taking place, there was no standardized agreement on what might be necessary to drive greater value.

The company recognized that a more consistent operating model was needed, and in 2018 the company decided to move all the innovation centers under a single global leader. This new leader was tasked with driving synergies between the innovation center leaders and establishing a new, universally accepted operating model.

Solutions

The company engaged Prophet to bring the innovation leaders together to rapidly build trust among them and encourage knowledge sharing. From there they could work toward consensus on a go-forward operating model and action plan for putting it into practice.

To start the alignment process, Prophet’s team led the innovation leaders in activities that provided insight into their own preferences and motivations within the innovation process, allowing each leader to meet each other on equal footing. The subsequent knowledge-sharing activities were designed to quickly establish commonality and shared interests. The first two activities were so effective that aligning on the go-forward operating model, key areas for standardization and the action plan was remarkably straightforward.

Results

The team quickly aligned on priorities, an action plan and expectations moving forward.  The head of global innovation and design at the company said:

“Designing and delivering this kind of iconic event for a team of highly independent and experienced innovation leaders (who regularly run these kinds of events themselves for our global clients) required a firm who could confidently bring deep, demonstrated subject matter expertise in innovation, digital product development and event facilitation. I trusted the Prophet team to rapidly get us to breakthrough team dynamics and an actionable plan, and they totally delivered.”

CASE STUDY

Electrolux

Creating an integrated and engaging customer experience

Challenge

Savvy, digitally-enabled consumers expect great brand experiences online, in-store and after purchase. Electrolux, a global leader in household and professional appliances, realized the need for an integrated and engaging branded customer experience that would leapfrog the competition, and to do this, they needed a digital transformation.

Solutions

Electrolux leaders partnered with Prophet to map the consumer experience and seamlessly integrate and activate the brand’s digital and physical shopping experience touchpoints.

With a focus on the consumer, experience teams worked across business sectors and geographies to examine the consumer experience throughout the purchase cycle and identify key needs and pain points. With so many different opportunities, brands and geographies to explore, the main challenge was applying a razor-sharp lens to the channels (e.g., mobile, retail, etc.) and identifying signature touchpoints to create a multi-year, step-by-step customer experience roadmap to drive transformation and business impact.

Creating a culture of experience innovation was also a priority. To empower and energize the delivery of the experience, Prophet worked with the CMO, CEO and sector business leaders at Electrolux to deliver a unique growth leadership development program for the top 350 brands, experience and product innovators across the company. The program provides experiential learning and access to capabilities/ knowledge from across the organization in exciting formats that engage their leaders and build ambassadors for the transformation to a consumer-driven company.

Results

After Electrolux put the customer first, shopper experiences improved and the organization mobilized around a clear and common consumer vision.

As a result, The Electrolux Group delivered its ninth consecutive quarter of organic growth. The organization has produced a step-change in the number of products and experience innovations that exceed new, aggressive standards for meeting consumers’ needs.

CASE STUDY

Electrolux

Developing a demand-driven business growth strategy

Challenge

Electrolux, a global leader in household and professional appliances, set out to leapfrog competitors through a demand-driving business growth strategy. They viewed the emergence of digitally-enabled shoppers, the growth in new retail formats and the surge in consumer buying power in emerging markets as a unique opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.

Solutions

Electrolux leaders partnered with Prophet to drive demand among targeted consumers through offer innovation, improvements to the shopping experience, new digital marketing tools and post-purchase experience upgrades. Working across business sectors and geographies, growth teams started clarifying the growth agenda and uncovering insights into the key drivers of consumer demand for offers and experiences. Global and sector teams developed multi-year, step-by-step roadmaps for innovation, digital marketing, consumer shopping experiences, post-purchase experiences and internal talent development. Individual sectors are now implementing several of these programs, piloting initiatives in new capability areas and rolling out focused new product launch programs.

The transformation includes building internal capabilities as well as launching programs in-market. Prophet worked with Electrolux’s CMO, CEO and sector business leaders to deliver a unique growth leadership development program for the top 350 brand, experience and product innovators across the company. They have become ambassadors for the transformation of Electrolux to a consumer-driven company.

Results

In the quarter after activation, the company delivered its ninth consecutive period of organic growth. The organization has produced a step-change in the number of products and experience innovations that exceed new, aggressive standards for meeting consumers’ needs; resulting in North America sales growth of 1.1%, and margin increases of 4.3%.

Impact

9

consecutive quarters of growth

1.1%

North America sales growth

4.3%

increase in margins

CASE STUDY

Crate&Barrel

Driving double-digit sales growth for a home goods retailer

Challenge

After several years of disappointing performance and a lack of brand clarity, Crate&Barrel reached out to Prophet to help diagnose the issue and determine a solution to turn the business around.

We worked with the Crate&Barrel team to transform its retail branding strategy and implement it across the key aspects of the business – brand, merchandising, store experience and service offers.

Solutions

Our retail branding work began by developing a deep understanding of the market and customers. Our segmentation research uncovered the opportunity for Crate&Barrel to win by focusing on an under-penetrated high-value segment. Based on this new target, we repositioned the brand to be relevant to its needs, defining the critical product and experience elements – both unique brand assets and critical gaps to invest behind – required to win and drive growth.

Part of the formula for success meant Crate&Barrel needed to inspire and engage this target customer, while also making the stores more profitable. As part of this new retail brand strategy we identified opportunities to make the store more effective through SKU optimization, cross-merchandising and product distortion recommendations. Crate&Barrel moved quickly to bring it to life in new social media stories and marketing campaigns to capture attention and encourage the target to take another look at the brand.

At the same time, Prophet began to focus on a longer-term plan to create a more engaging, impactful and immersive store design for Crate&Barrel. It would deliver on the brand strategy and result in increased cross-shopping, dwell time and traffic. We also identified opportunities for growth through new design services offering to increase transaction size while also better serving the consumer.

Results

From insights gathering to strategy to execution, Prophet collaborated closely with Crate&Barrel leadership to diagnose the issues and develop solutions to support the in-market execution of the new retail strategy. After less than 12 months in the market, the business began to see significant improvement in sales and traffic. In fact, the brand saw double digits growth in sales.

CASE STUDY

Olive Garden

Building a relentlessly relevant brand

Challenge

Olive Garden, Darden Restaurant’s largest brand, is the leader in casual dining – a category they created over 3 decades ago. With a rich history and over $3.5B in annual sales, they were facing a daunting challenge – how to remain relevant in a world that’s changed drastically since the inception of casual dining?

It’s a category-wide challenge: a sea of sameness with “food at a price” promotions, increased competition from fast-casual options, and decreasing relevance and consideration for their core guests and Millennials. The Olive Garden leadership team knew they needed to get out ahead of these challenges in order to remain the category leader and drive growth.

The challenge was clear – how to grow brand relevance with their loyal fans while building relevance with new audiences? How could they force re-consideration and build equity for the Olive Garden brand while staying true to their heritage and driving growth through their strongest assets?

Solutions

We believe relentlessly relevant brands need to obsess over their customers, so we took it a bit further: We became them. We ate bowl after bowl of pasta in the restaurants, talked to dozens of guests, and scoured the social media landscape. One thing became strikingly clear – the passion for Olive Garden stems from some of their most important assets –family and breadsticks. (C’mon… who doesn’t love those breadsticks?!)

To amplify that passion, we found innovative ways to bring breadstick fans closer to the food and family they love. In partnership with the Olive Garden marketing, PR, and Culinary team, we developed “Breadstick Nation” as a platform for new breadstick products and experiences, such as breadstick sandwiches and Olive Garden food trucks. Citizens of Breadstick Nation unite!

Results

The proof is in the dough. Breadstick Nation received over one-billion social media mentions before any products launched and it has now been featured by major media outlets from NPR to Buzzfeed. Breadstick fans are already lining up at food trucks across the country, and tracking the Breadstick Nation summer tour via Olive Garden’s new Breadstick Nation website. Darden Restaurants’ stock surged 15% and hit a new all-time high in the weeks following the #breadsticknation launch.

The celebration of Olive Garden’s key assets isn’t ending with the breadstick. We also focused on family and togetherness to develop “Little Italy,” an engaging kids club with fun activities for kids in the restaurant and online, which is being tested in select markets. And several other yet-to-be-launched platforms.

By obsessing over the guest, staying true to the brand, and creating inspired new ideas that align with the passions of core guests, Olive Garden is charting a path of relentless relevance and business growth for generations to come.

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