Mailchimp unveils funky new branding

Marketing automation company Mailchimp has a new look—one that embraces the brand’s quirkiness and sass.

In an article titled, “See Mailchimp’s weird new branding,” Fast Company reported:

… It’s keeping its logo-cum-mascot Freddie the Chimp, for starters, and using an analog typeface from the 1920s as its new typeface, and illustrating its new brand with a series of almost childlike drawings that look unpolished and rough by design. Weird branding is alive and well in the tech industry.

Prior to revealing the new look, Mailchimp’s co-founder and chief executive tweeted:

I designed @Mailchimp’s first Freddie mascot back in 2001. We’ve come a long way since then, growing beyond email to a leading marketing platform for small business. Later today, we’re launching an updated brand and website, designed to tell that story. Here’s a sneak peek! pic.twitter.com/uffaWUsbRR

— Ben Chestnut (@benchestnut) September 26, 2018

Mailchimp tweeted the move and posted it on its Facebook page:

Mailchimp started out doing email, but these days we do a lot more. So we made a ✨new website✨ with a fresh look that shows all the ways we help small businesses grow. Feel free to let us know what you think — it will stress out our social media team. https://t.co/pI1uw1E8MR pic.twitter.com/3eAA22AMce

— Mailchimp (@MailChimp) September 26, 2018

Mailchimp ended its tweet with a sassy challenge to its customers: “Feel free to let us know what you think — it will stress out our social media team.”

The bold brand voice extends to the rest of the company’s new look.

“Your business was born for this,” Mailchimp’s website now proclaims. That statement is followed by the following subheads as you scroll through its sales pitch: “What you can do with Mailchimp,” “You’ll be in good company,” and “It’s easy to get started.”

In a company blog post, Mailchimp wrote that the rebranding is intended to unify its offerings while keeping the quirks that first caught consumers’ eyes:

But with so many creative thinkers under one roof, over time we found that parts of our customer experience grew in different directions. We didn't want our brand to feel disjointed, so we created a more unified and recognizable system by weaving the new brand identity throughout all facets of Mailchimp, from our customers’ accounts to our website, and from our marketing to our support channels.

With this redesign, we set out to retain all the weird, lovable elements that endeared our earliest customers to Mailchimp, while creating space for the brand to grow and connect with even more small businesses. We didn’t want to lose our heritage in the process, so we focused on capturing the essence of what Mailchimp has always been.

We want to show our customers that being yourself is good for business by providing the tools and confidence to take risks, especially as their businesses evolve. We champion authenticity, originality, and expressiveness because it's what helps us—and our customers—stand out. We hope to inspire them to be more bold and creative in their own branding efforts.

Even though the company used a blog post to share the story behind its new look, Mailchimp announced that one change involves getting rid of its company blog. Now, only certain posts are available under the websites “about” section.

Fast Company reported:

“As we evolve as a company and are offering these different services and features, we need to evolve our brand and our visual language as well,” Gene Lee, Mailchimp’s vice president of design, tells Fast Company . Features now include marketing automation software that’s more sophisticated than the email building software that the company has been known for.

The offbeat images and lingo have always been part of Mailchimp’s brand image.

In June, The Drum reported:

The brand managed to make its way into pop culture four years ago when it serendipitously found itself as the sole sponsor of the breakout hit podcast Serial. MailChimp’s ad, which featured a child mispronouncing the company’s name as “MailKimp,” quickly became just as popular as the podcast itself.

In the years since, MailChimp has raised the B2B advertising bar with a series of campaigns that are more about the brand’s sense of humor than what it actually has to offer, a strategy it says is resonating with its target audience of small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Post-Serial, the Atlanta-based brand’s first big splash came in the form of “Did You Mean MailChimp?”, an elaborate campaign that cleverly played off of the “MailKimp”mispronunciation. Bizarre products like FailChips, a series of short films with names like JailBlimp, and an anti-aging facial treatment called SnailPrimp were all brought to life in order to pique the interest of anyone who stumbled upon them. Of course, each bizarre activation eventually pointed back to MailChimp.

What do you think of the company’s rebranding, PR Daily readers?

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