Decoding Gen Z: Shape Shifters

This week, our Strategy Director Amy Lee deep dives into the world of “Gen Z.” Loosely defined as anyone born after Millennials (helpful), Gen Z are roughly 13-17 years old right now. Regardless that the majority of them are still relying on pocket money, brands and marketers are already frantically thinking about ways to capture their attention, influence and potential spending power. “Screen addicts”, “Cord nevers”, “The iGeneration”, “Net Gen”… whatever you call them, Gen Z are coming into the world of work and consumption soon. At scale: they make up over 25% of the US population and millions more worldwide. So, it’s worth understanding more about the next tidal wave of influencers.

No generation can be reduced to simple definitions. But we’ve observed patterns of (largely US-centric) behavior, having observed Gen Z through research insights, their online activity and speaking to them directly. 

Last in our series on Gen Z, we explore…

Shape Shifters

Michael Jackson once sang that “it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white.” That has never been more true than for Gen Z. They are empowered to challenge assumptions about who they are or who they should be based on conventional definitions. They embrace the blurry middle between binary positions.

Statistically, and logically, they are the most ethnically diverse group of consumers ever to enter the market. As globalization has moved from an economic phenomenon to a familial reality, more teenagers growing up today have parents from different cultures and have roots in far off places. Which means they can spot ‘token’ diversity a mile off — whether in advertising or in the make up of your work force. They see diversity not just as a marker of political correctness but a signal of accessibility: if brands and businesses don’t reflect their multi-racial reality they will walk on by, since this is clearly ‘not a place for people like me’.

But diversity is not solely about ethnicity for this generation. Gender and sexuality are also increasingly nuanced concepts, open to interpretation by each individual. 10,000 people in the US have taken part in the Self Evident project to identify as anything other than 100% straight, and transgender champions now grace the cover of Vanity Fair. By no means has prejudice been eradicated but there is no doubt that the mainstream media is on board with fluid notions of sexuality and gender, thanks in large part to contemporary idols like Miley Cyrus and Jaden Smith who defy typical gender and sexuality stereotypes.

Lily Rose Depp in Self Evident Truths. image: @iolovesyou on Instagram

Gen Z refuses to be pinned down. They want opportunities to chop and change their identity, and they celebrate those that share that sense of freedom. Increasingly, this means they are less focused on glossy celebrities, and looking for guidance and inspiration from people who feel more ‘real’: peers (like Cameron Asa), bold individuals (like Malala), and talented people who reject conventional celebrity tropes (think, Zoe Kravitz with punk peroxide hair and grungy cargo pants).  

They aren’t asking for your acceptance into a tribe. They are collectors of reference and kaleidoscopes of identity. Don’t expect to mold them to your idea of ideal: they are looking for a platform to find their best selves, whatever that might look like this week.

Illustrations by Nejc Prah. Hero image left: Wenn, middle: polyvore.com, right: hollywoodlife.com

Amy Lee is Strategy Director at Wolff Olins New York. Follow her at @amynormalee

Why Implementation Matters

It was late last year First Great Western revealed they were changing their name to GWR.

It was a bold move, given the heritage wrapped up in the name – the original GWR was referred to by some as ‘God’s Wonderful Railway’, without any hint of the modern train passenger’s irony. Additionally, the rebrand included a visual redesign as they adopted a more modern approach while retaining a link to what lives at the heart of its new old name – great engineering.

Travelling on the service recently, I was impressed with the large, strong, industrial logo and the new colour choices. But what I didn’t see was anything substantially new. The same old items simply had a new logo while the experience was still a classic British train ordeal; the same clunky and complex booking system with a multitude of ticket types and restrictions on travel that would give Apple’s Ts&Cs a run for their money.

Seven months after revealing the identity, it now seems like another example of a brand simply doing the same thing in a better-looking way, rather than doing something new.

This reminds me of the clients Wolff Olins often meet who’ve previously launched a new brand without seeing the results they were expecting. They may have had the right ambition, certainly when creating their new brand. But, in many cases, it disappeared when the time came to implement real change. The result? The business didn’t change – it just looked a bit different, and a couple of years later they were looking to rebrand again.

This is where implementation comes into play. Traditionally, implementation specialists come in later to focus on auditing the existing visual assets and work out the costs of changing them. Both are important but it is not where implementation should begin.

Brand – be that design or strategy – is frequently discussed without the added complexity of making it real. At the same time, approaches to production, budgets and resourcing are discussed without giving consideration to the importance of design.

Today’s executives understand a rebrand is more than a logo. Customers will still recognize their beloved brand with or without it. But this is often forgotten by the time it comes to the brand’s implementation. In focusing on solely the logo, GWR are missing a huge opportunity.

The reality is that any implementation should never be a pure cost exercise, or an attempt to win awards for the most consistent logo placement. It’s much more than that.

Reality? Check.

It’s vital to remind ourselves why this costly change is happening. Otherwise all we achieve is a very expensive paint job - typically at the expense of budgets from other areas of the business that also need change.

Our approach to implementation at Wolff Olins is to consider the creative and the practical side by side. We work with both clients and partner agencies to lead this change in a different way -  by ensuring that time, effort and budgets are focused on what really matters – which is signalling real change to customers and employees while ensuring a smooth transition.

Maintaining the focus on people while enabling a smooth transition from theory to production is one of the most challenging tasks a company can face. By acting quickly, decisively and breaking down the tasks into the correct stages, we can ensure the complexity is manageable.

The first stage is to create an approach that factors in the ambition: what this change is signalling to the business and the rest of the world. Key questions such as whether your brand should launch overnight, with a big reveal, or whether it should grow gradually into the market, become easier to answer with this ambition in mind.

Ensuring your first discussion is about the ambition and approach to launch is a great step and one that will set your project on the right path. 

Change across the whole business?

Now is the time to spread change across the business. Use the ambition and new brand to engage the entire business in discussions on what should change (and when).

Discussing this early on allows time to plan in a way that gets maximum bang for your buck. In areas such as product development, culture change, and digital infrastructure, the timelines can be long; the sooner the change is agreed upon, the better. With this headstart, you can create tangible and impactful change that sits at the heart of a brand launch.

This is where the role of an implementation partner becomes key. As professionals, we like to think we can achieve real change through creative planning and using the ambition to justify everything that changes. But this needs to be combined with a clear plan for transition and the key stages that will deliver it. The skill of combining the emotive with the methodical is one that sets apart the kind of great implementations that can systematically change a business.

Focus on the essential

A clear roadmap is a key implementation tool. One of the best ways to create one is to focus on the essentials: consider what achieves the most impact, what best demonstrates the new approach your company is taking, and what items must change to avoid confusion. By focusing on these three areas, rather than the traditional cost + audit approach, you’ll have a roadmap that will allow you to invest in what really matters.

These are a few thoughts on how to tackle implementation more effectively. However, it’s a complex piece that touches every part of a brand, and thus every part of a brand project. But by starting with an ambition, building an approach that works across the business, and basing your timings on something more than cost alone, you’ll be able to give yourself the best possible start.

Take a step back and remember: anyone who creates a new brand understands that it’s about more than a logo change. It’s time for the people implementing brands to embrace this too.

Illustration by Erik Yang.

Corin Mills is Implementation Manager at Wolff Olins London. 

Open for business

Today, dynamic and vibrant brand identities are no longer just the preserve of broadcast channels or tech start ups.

Established businesses in critical industries like health, finance and energy do not have to be constrained playing by a traditional, monolithic corporate rulebook when it comes to they express themselves.

More than ever, it’s important these big organisations, which touch our lives everyday, begin to look, feel and behave in new and ever more compelling ways.

It’s always been the job of a brand identity to amplify and emphasise the world view of an organisation. But at a time when technology brings us closer together, it is also critical the same identity is able to empathise and respond to the needs of individual users.

In a year long collaboration, we worked with Enel’s leadership team to design an Open Power strategy. Helping to position Enel as the first open, responsive and sustainable modern utility company, the new brand identity aims to capture and convey the spirit of moving and active energy.

It began with a period of intense exploration as the whole design process embraced the idea of being open and collaborative, working closely with the client team and a range of partners, specialists and cross disciplinary mix from our four studios.

At the start of the creative process together, we explored how to visualise different kinds of power, including kinetic energy, physical phenomena and data driven systems. Using what we learned from these experiments, we put a cursor at the heart of the new brand; it is the starting point of an energy that is always moving and visually echoes the core behind the power of a light bulb – the filament.

The cursor informs the look and feel of the new brand and creates a consistent design language. This ensures everything from the word mark logo, to print and digital applications tie back to the principles of the Open Power strategy.

The brand is intentionally experimental; the cursor can be used in new and unexpected ways to create endless interpretations of Open Power. This means the brand is truly open to others and we encourage people inside and outside Enel to play, innovate and experiment with the cursor.

Visual scalability, flexibility and downright desirability is a must for any modern business. A brand presence should engage and inform your user and be as comfortable in the hand and in motion as it is in the FT on the side of a building.

To make this happen isn’t easy, it takes vision and self confidence but the brands that really change the world always look like they mean it.

Chris Moody is Global Principal and Creative Director at Wolff Olins. Follow him @MoodyThinking

3 Minutes On: BBCThree

In our new series, “3 Minutes On,” we give the mic to one of our own for three minutes to respond to what the Internet is talking about on any given day. Running the gamut of topics, expect some pointed and passionate opinions you may or may not agree with. And if you don’t, drop us a line.

"It's a waste of money. It looks like X or Y. I can't even read it. A five year old could have done it…"

Just a few of the responses levelled at the new BBCThree identity from the press, design media and social streams.

It's predictable, lazy and more than a bit derivative - the reaction that is, not the work.

Derision is the same response that seems to echo round cyberspace every time there's a vaguely new piece of design or identity put out in the world.

It's fair enough to critique but it would be good to hear something more constructive, or a really fresh perspective. But as Taylor rightly says, haters gonna hate. Its always easier to knock something down than be brave enough to stand behind something new.

There’s a certain irony in seeing these near identical claims of recycling other people's ideas or accusations of bandwagon jumping stacked neatly one on top another on a Twitter stream.

Sure the new design looks a bit weird (but weird goes hand in hand with anything that's new or out of the ordinary). It feels a bit bold and blunt (but it's going have to work on an app button or a mobile). It could be misread (but it doesn't really look like any other channel). But at least it's switching things a bit.

Design needs to consider craft and care but sometimes it's also about context and cojones.

The truth is we can't know yet if the design is really any good. We need to see it in action, swipe it, press it, prod it and flip it.

Maybe we should give it some space, let it breathe in its natural environment. See if we skip past it tomorrow. See if it sits well with our favourite programmes. See if it really annoys us when it's sat in the corner for a whole hour programme. Discover if we get bored to death of of it after two weeks.

The chatter seems to be almost entirely around the logo - but a broadcast logo is always one bit of a bigger whole of bugs, indents and lower thirds. Paul and Mary wouldn't judge a cake on The Great British Bake Off just by looking at a bag of flour, so perhaps it's better to look at the bigger picture.

Test the new formula, give all the ingredients time to rise and then we'll know if we should give it three stars or ten.

-Chris Moody 

Illustration by Oliver Thein.

To hear more from Chris on why people need to get brave, check out his recent Web Summit 2015 talk in Dublin here and follow him @MoodyThinking

Is Google’s New Logo a Moonshot?

For a company trading in the expansion of the known universe, giving a logo a short back and side will inevitably fall flat. Pixel perfection it may be but snarky designers will still sneer; others may wonder 'Where’s the moonshot?'

To all you naysayers and doubters I say 'Don't be so hasty.’

Let's imagine for a minute the new Google identity is a moonshot. Not graphically but as part of a bigger master plan- perhaps one to ultimately own your future.

Make no mistake, in the coming years, Alphabet will own or at least have a meaningful stake in every part of your life. What does that kind of ubiquity and presence feel like for a business that has never shied away from the limelight?

If I were Google I'd want all my brands to play together. To stick together, all Lego brick-like.

If I were in a bunker, mustering up a way for Search to project onto Glass in my Self-Driving Car while I'm Moon streaming my Play-playlist to my Skull pumping mind-phones - I'd be thinking about identity in an equally new, interconnected and fully fragmentable way.

What if those four dots were the start of an identity that could switch brands, quantum-leap products and roller coaster through experiences and functionality?  ID that really knows it's ABC's.

What if the un-weirding of the wordmark means they're de-emphasising Google? To make it feel part of a pack? Because the way we'll interact with the alphabet soup of the future will be through voice- without screens and visual signposting. Brand communism in the interest of the M for Motherland.

Branding the collective isn't easy. Google has had an interesting journey with icons, products and brands - but who's nailed it? GE made everything make sense and feel safe. Branson's Virgin empire rocked uncorporate throughout the 80s and 90's but now resembles Bez's burned-out cerebellum. The UK's Channel 4 continues to nail that just-enough cohesion but have the luxury of a controlled space for their brands to sit together.

Maybe Google's moonshot is they're not thinking about identity based on the old rules; they’re thinking identities and how those identities interlink with one another. Google is approaching a new age beyond the pixel perfect horizon where experience and expression already have Gen-A tribal children- strange beings that will dictate how we move between the physical, digital, and audio experiences of the future.

Exactly what constitutes an identity and where its’ boundaries lie has fundamentally changed and exponentially multiplied.  In the context of one of the world’s most radical business, we can surely expect our meager minds to be blown.

So yes, maybe a moonshot.

But if not, it’s still a very tidy, tidy- up.

Neil Cummings is Creative Director at Wolff Olins London. Follow him @NeilCummingsEsq

Visual Identity ---> Visual Ecosystem

We're currently in the middle of an intense process of experimentation, creative strategy, illustration, photography, claymation, motion graphics, prototyping and crazy tech. It's what is technically called the 'visual identity phase' of work but I've got a feeling that name isn't quite right anymore…

I love visual identity. In my first year of uni I got a buzz designing a system of parts and I dreamt of getting my graphics on the tail of a plane like the design heroes of a different time. Back then, my starting point was always the logo. I spent serious time crafting a single compelling marque and an exciting super graphic and then applying it to stationery, signage, brochures and later websites and animations. This process works. But as the number and type of interactions we need to design for increases, the visual identity is reduced to a tiny logo on the edge of a website, with no visual relationship to the other elements.

I've flipped the process now. For me, it's better to start with the touch points where the identity needs to live and look at how the entire identity can behave and respond in those environments. I try and think of all of the elements at once – grids, type, icons, backgrounds, imagery and how all of those parts can live together in a visual ecosystem.

Elements respond with interaction.

Elements relate to each other.

Elements adapt to their environment.

A living system that evolves over time. It lives and breathes and responds to people. It can be touched and dragged and sung to. I'm no longer crafting shapes but designing behaviours.

The benefit of designing in this way, is that when people interact with the brand there is an organic connection between the brand and the experience. The elements are recognisable, interactions feel alive and the experience is seamless. And when it comes to designing the logo, it basically forms itself as an obvious conclusion to an ecosystem of elements.

The name visual identity doesn't feel quite right any more… do we need a new name?

Campbell Butler is a Design Director at Wolff Olins London.  

#DumpStoli Gets Complicated

By Max Rosero

Sometimes brands find themselves in hot water. Sometimes it’s truly their fault, and other times it’s all part of an international misunderstanding about where people’s liquor comes from.  

At least that's the situation Stoli Vodka now finds itself in, following the public outcry to boycott Russian Vodka brands after the country's recent enforcement of its draconian ant-gay legislation. 

With bars around the country (including 200 in NYC) literally dumping Stoli in the street, the brand is facing a full-scale PR nightmare, replete with angry netizens taking to the Twittersphere to publicly condemn the brand with the hashtag and Twitter handle @DumpStoli. There's only one problem—Stoli is no longer a Russian brand. Despite its longstanding reputation as a quality Russian vodka, Stoli is actually produced in Latvia and has been since 2002. That's when Russian Billionaire (and Stoli owner) Yuri Scheffler, fled to Western Europe after Vladamir Putin issued a warrant for his arrest. The two were engaged in a heated legal dispute over the ownership of the Stoli Trademark, and Putin had made it his personal mission to hunt Scheffler down. When he left, Scheffler made sure to take his successful vodka business with him, and the Stoli headquarters were soon relocated to tiny Luxembourg.

What makes the Stoli story particularly complicated is what came next. In one of the more bizarre examples of brand imitation, Putin refused to let the iconic vodka go quietly into the night, instead helping to set up a state-owned “Stoli brand” to be sold solely within the confines of the Russian state. The name, packaging, and production techniques remained nearly identical, with the only noticeable difference being the words “Russian Vodka” printed prominently on the label of the Russian replica.

Of course, owing to the fact that consumers are more likely to associate quality with Russian vodka than they are with one produced in Latvia, Scheffler kept news of his business’s move relatively quiet. The result was a bizarre double life for the Stoli brand—one in Russia for the imitator, and another overseas for the trademarked original.

The problem is, the Stoli available here in The States—the one currently being poured in the gutters of America's major cities to protest Russia’s oppressive policies—is not actually the Russian imitation. Instead, it's Scheffler’s, from his company headquartered in Luxembourg. Add to that the fact that the vodka itself is made in Latvia, and the whole story becomes even harder for consumers to wrap their heads around. 

It’s an unfortunate brand conundrum for Stoli’s founder. Whereas Stoli's connection to the world's preeminent Vodka-producing nation was once a defining characteristic of the brand, that same association has quickly become its biggest liability. It’s a situation similar to the one BP faced in the aftermath of 2010’s massive oil spill in The Gulf. Within a matter of days, the very product BP’s brand equity had been built upon, oil, had become public enemy number one.  It took a long time, not to mention tens of billions of dollars, for BP to dig itself out from under the weight of public scrutiny and many could argue the brand has been irreparably damaged.

The question then becomes, when controversy engulfs an asset that’s so closely tied to your brand, how do you help consumers decouple one from the other? With the global lens focused so closely on Russia’s human rights violations, it’s a question Scheffler and his team are no doubt asking themselves, particularly as they look to draw a clear distinction between their actual product and the inherent “Russianness” of their Stoli brand. 

  Max Rosero is a strategy intern at Wolff Olins New York.

Univision Launches New Brand Identity

What started out as KWEX-TV in San Antonio in the mid 1970s, the first ever full-time Spanish language station, has now evolved into the leading Hispanic media company in the United States: Univision. As their audience has evolved and as the industry has evolved, so has Univision. And in this morning’s Hollywood Reporter, Univision unveiled a new brand identity that communicates its transformation from a traditional broadcast network to an innovative multiplatform media company – still fueled by a mission to serve Hispanic America.

In August 2011, Ruth Gaviria, senior vice president of Corporate Marketing at Univision asked us to help focus their vision, pull together the different voices within their company and create an updated brand identity. For over nine months we worked together to create an identity that would modernize the brand and signal to the world that they meant business. 

Univision is a brand with a tremendous following. On the Burke Brand Equity score they broke the scale. Scoring the highest-ever-recorded scores for brand loyalty. Research among Hispanic Americans puts Univision as one of the most trusted institutions in America. And their share against other Spanish-language media is a whopping 73 percent. 

The refreshed version we created of their classic logo embodies their shift toward a more integrated 360-degree organization that better serves their evolving audiences and their emerging needs. It was designed to represent all that makes Univision the company they are: a dynamic, innovative multimedia company competing in a rapidly evolving industry.

During our work with Univision, we facilitated workshops to uncover characteristics that set them apart in their category. Working with our brand butterfly and quadrant tools, we helped Univision understand how to modernize and diversify the brand without sacrificing their heritage and powerful brand loyalty. 

The result was a brand story that focused on using their scale and influence to be the No. 1 brand representing and serving the full spectrum of what it means to be Hispanic in America today.

Univision’s new logo is a visible testament to its status as an integrated and ever-evolving brand, reflecting its commitment to Hispanics and their culture and its dedication to meeting their emerging needs.  The re-imagined brand shows they are not standing still, but evolving with the needs of audiences and advertisers.

And, in building their overall brand equity and strengthening Univision’s image as one company able to serve both audiences and partners, they’ve better positioned themselves toward something truly game changing: becoming the No. 1 media company regardless of language by 2016.

It’s been very exciting kicking off this new era at Univision! For more information on Univision, please visit www.univision.net.