Our first client is an ant! How the MAYI ID brand was created
You can’t smell it. You can’t taste it. You can't stroke it, even weigh it. It doesn't shimmer, it doesn't bubble, it doesn't crunch... From the customer's point of view, it's all virtual. From a branding point of view, it's the perfect playground.
MAYI ID supplies specific IT solutions. It is a set of tools for secure and easy management of digital identities. What matters is parameters, data – and of course, price. Moreover, it is a system for corporate customers.
In cases like this, it’s easy to think there’s no room for emotion, imagery, or storytelling. And just as easy to end up with a technical title, a techie slogan, a descriptive logo… in short, a brand that speaks in rational terms.
But that would be too easy...
Rationality is (never) enough
Yes, you can have a Microsoft-type name (with a previously purely typographic logo). Or you can have something like Apple with the symbol of a bitten apple – juicy, ripe and, thanks to the slogan “think different”, evoking for many the sin of Adam and Eve.
Also, our Swiss client REIST Telecom had only a fingerprint symbol at the beginning and focused on words clearly associated with digital identity when searching for a name. Thankfully, he is a forward-thinking client. He saw that wouldn’t be enough.
And so today, it has an identity that is based on a parallel to the ant kingdom – because ants are amazingly hardworking, perfectly organised in a fixed hierarchy and, last but not least, they are reliable guardians of their intricately structured anthills.
Call the archetypes
As always, we started with who the brand is for. We defined three target groups. We named what they expect from this type of security software and what it can give them. Based on that, we then identified the most appropriate archetypes for the brand...
Top managers – who have to pay for the software – want to see a return on the company's performance. So that their employees are more efficient, work better together, and make fewer unnecessary and often dangerous mistakes. They are ambitious, want to win over the competition, and that's why the archetype of the ruler is close to their hearts.
The ICT specialists – who have to sell the software to the management (and ideally want to climb the ladder with the boss) – want to get rid of daily routines and other banalities that are usually beneath them. They wish they didn't have to deal with who forgot the password or accidentally deleted something from someone's disk. They are responsible for the security of data, and so the archetype of the caregiver is close to their hearts.
Office workers – who will be using the software today and every day – want it to be easy, fast, not distracting from work... in short, they don't need to actually understand it. For them, the magician archetype is just right.
The ants are coming in
They command respect, can defend themselves against predators thousands of times their size, can hold up to 50 times their own weight (making them some of the strongest creatures in the world), and form one big kingdom in their nests with their own queen, dedicated army, and hard-working workers. A perfect symbol of a ruler archetype not to be trifled with.
The queen tends to the reproduction of her colony, while the military type ants guard (and also admirably defend) the site from predators, with the workers providing food and building materials for the nest. A clear archetype of the caretaker on whom total reliance is placed.
Every ant knows its role and moves through the anthill’s labyrinth with ease. Its scale – just like its strength – is impressive. Fascinating to humans. The archetype of the magician who makes everything work miraculously by itself.
And it was at the intersection of these that we began to search for the language, tone and face of the new brand.
A brand that can bear it
Our metaphor is underpinned by both the logo, in which the ant carries a word much larger than itself, and the main visual principle – the pheromone trail by which ants orient themselves. An amazing feat in a perfectly organized system.
And that beautifully navigable name? Doesn't it sound a bit like the name of a magician’s name or a magic spell? Doesn’t MAYI echo the English question of possibility or permission, i.e. “may I” (so appropriate for identity management and security)? And yet it is a Chinese word that means – ant. Moreover, easily registered as a trademark.
And what about your brand? Let’s build it twig by twig.
“You helped us see our business in a whole new light. Thanks to your expertise, we now have an authentic identity that truly resonates with our audience...”
Marc Hirsbrunner – Head of Marketing & Sales
Reist Telecom GmbH
