Storyboard18 | Mind the gap: Decoding Mindshare’s identity transformation

"Mind" and "Share" have been pulled apart in Mindshare’s new logo, to signal its focus on sharing ideas for "enhanced and integrated media services for the transformation age".

Mindshare, the media services company that is part of WPP group, has refreshed its brand identity as the next step in its transformation. The new identity system is designed to reflect the nature of modern marketing, which demands a closer and stronger integration between client and agency partners. It integrates and connects Mindshare’s new logo with clients, people and content by pulling apart ‘Mind’ and ‘Share’.

The company outlined its strategy earlier last year to deliver enhanced and integrated media services for the transformation age. It appointed a new global leadership team and introduced its vision to “Accelerate Good Growth”. Now Mindshare is aligning its brand identity with the new direction.

Storyboard18 caught up with Greg Brooks, Global Chief Marketing and Culture Officer - Mindshare, and Parthasarathy Mandayam (Maps), CEO – Mindshare South Asia, to find out more about the genesis of the identity change. They also shed light on Mindshare’s areas of focus and investment and how to tackle the challenge of the death of the third-party cookie.

Edited excerpts.

What was the need to change Mindshare’s identity and why now?

Brooks: There are a number of reasons why we wanted to update the brand identity. One is that we hadn’t done it since 2008, which is an eternity in terms of modern brand identity, so we are overdue in updating our brand in the modern marketing world.

We are undergoing a transformation of our own as well, in terms of our leadership, our capabilities and our offering and our overall vision for business. We needed an identity that was going to reflect this transformation.

On a technical level, we had become the ‘purple agency’ as much as we were Mindshare and we were very keen to get the focus back on our name. One of the reasons why we had become ‘the purple agency’ is that the logo itself had become hard to apply in all instances and certainly across all platforms, that’s because when we built it in 2008 the world was a different place. So the philosophy behind the change was that we have a very strong vision for the future growth, we call it the good growth.

The new identity separates the words "mind" and "share". What does that signify, and how are you positioning the brand now? And what happens to all that purple? 

Brooks: The purple doesn’t go, we are not giving up on the purple. While we were thinking about how to make the brand identity more active and how we can become more involved, the focus came down to what does the company mean. And we realised that mindshare is all about sharing ideas. Then why can’t we physically use the logo and the company name to introduce those concepts? Hence mind and share to be pulled apart in the new brand identity system.

How will this change in brand identity translate to the India office?

Maps: As one of the leading markets of Mindshare in the world, definitely we want to be at the forefront of the new change and this new identity you will see coming through in how we communicate in India. We have also had the good fortune to pioneer a number of different business areas in India like content practice, analytics practice, this kind of diverse practices fits with the new identity. So you will see this in every bit of what we do here in India as well.

As a part of this new brand refresh and also as we enter a new year after two long years of the pandemic, what are going to be your areas of focus and investment?

Maps: Last two years have seen an acceleration in a lot of things, whether it’s data driven marketing or the platforms or the way consumers are consuming content, all that has transformed tremendously and we also had to transform in line with that to be ahead of the curve when it comes to delivering that for our clients. So, the focus is on providing full funnel marketing which is completely powered by data and content.

One of the main marketing trends that everyone has been talking about is the curtailing of third-party cookies, which is going to be challenging for every marketer, especially at a time when customised messaging is really the need of the hour. How prepared are you for this?

Brooks: The reality is that the challenge hasn’t changed - it’s the right message, right person, right time. What has changed is there are different ways and different places you can do that. Global digital ecosystems are going to be the future engines of growth, they are massive platforms and a lot of consumers are concentrated into their platforms and they are making themselves more engaging. We are not talking about one platform in isolation but the entire ecosystem and that’s where clients have to now leverage those engines of growth for the future.

Maps: We are well on our way on this, we are partnering with a number of clients in managing life beyond the third party or the death of the cookie and we are partnering with them on every step of the way on how they can leverage their own first party data better, how we are bringing in partnerships, data clean rooms and giving them opportunity to thrive when this comes about.

What are your clients looking for and what would be your advice to your clients in this unpredictable VUCA world?

Maps: Clients are looking for transformation partners. Some of the advice is to see how we are really able to have long-term planning, the annual operating plans which we always have but have the flexibility built into how those plans are executed, set aside budgets, set aside time for innovation and invest strongly in test and measure.