A peek into the process of the rebranding project at SplashLearn that was led by me (Designer @Brand and Communications at SplashLearn) and carried out by the amazing team at Hello Monday.
The need for a rebrand
Our product at that time was called Splashmath - A math learning program for Kindergarten to Grade 5, led by a mascot named Pippo (a sailor Hippopotamus), and hundreds of games with multiple characters, some repeating and some new. It was a time for expansion and creation.
During this period came our new English Language Arts (ELA) games, all with a fresh set of characters and styles fit for the ELA curriculum. As SplashLearn evolved from a math-only platform to a comprehensive learning destination, we needed a new name and identity that could embody our vision, unify our offerings, and allow for expansion—marking a new phase in our journey. This required more than a refresh; it was a chance to align our brand with our expanding mission.
We were looking at three major results from this rebrand:
A name that can encompass all we do and has provision for future expansion
Build a brand story that can provide consistency to our user experience, including the learning content
Better conversions that come from credibility (well, eventually!)
Finding the perfect fit
Now with the rebranding goals ready, the next step on the journey was finding an agency or a studio that could help us achieve them. Where do we get started with that?
The designers listed down their favorite design studios.
The founders wanted someone with experience in the US market and expertise in kids' products.
Our investors wanted someone with a good reputation.
Easy! And just like that, we had a checklist ready to trim through the endless Excel sheet of agencies.
Parallely, we also set up a team of internal stakeholders from SplashLearn who would be a part of the review & feedback sessions with the agency. As a designer and an architect (in a previous life), I have been advised by well-meaning seniors to identify our key decision-makers and cap them. Two is a dream while five is a nightmare. We got together a team of 12, spanning marketing, product, game design, and leadership.
With diverse voices, we fostered a democratic approach that allowed for creative alignment—and a few surprises along the way!
From our first few 'orientation' meetings with various agencies, we realized that apart from our checklist, we needed to look for teams who we vibe with. Comfortable to share our ideas with, approachable and easy-going, and yet professional enough to educate us with their design expertise. And that's when Hello Monday stepped in to rebrand Splash Math and this journey truly began.
Hello Monday x Splash
What followed next was the orientation workshop held by Hello Monday, intending to better understand our users' parents, teachers, and the child) and our aspirations for the future brand.
All 12 Splash team members had a week of hands-on exercises to align their vision for the company and the product. We explored and evaluated the big brand questions, shared our assumptions, articulated our dreams, and got some surprises along the way. It was almost wondrous how a team of 12 found alignment by simply delving deeper into the 'Why' of matters.
We all wanted to change the way kids see learning.
With the brand strategy ready, we now had a common mission and the promise of transforming kids into curious, fearless, lifelong learners. Additionally, the workshop also helped define a collective purpose for the work we do at Splash Math.
Sharing SplashLearn with the world
Our new name, SplashLearn, had the provision to go beyond just Math learning. It encompassed learning beyond the school curriculum, beyond the US audience and allowed us to be perceived as experts in building engaging learning content. All this while retaining the 'Splash' association for our 30 million existing users. As for the brand strategy and visual language, Hello Monday crafted a universe where our characters, learning worlds, and games coexist in harmony.
Translating across the user journey
While the team at Hello Monday was defining the brand visuals, we simultaneously started to apply and test them for various user touchpoints, from our social media and App Store presence to the App's child dashboard. This proactive testing enabled us to get a better insight into usage and eventually, define the guidelines for the new brand assets.
The launch: Easing into the rebrand
With our renewed brand name and logo, and a whole new Splashverse, we were excited to onboard our new users. But at the same time, we would've ripped the ease and association our existing users have with the current product. For instance, where did the Hippo icon go from my iPad? Did I accidentally delete the app? Why can't I find my App on the App Store anymore?
With this in mind, SplashLearn's brand design team then worked on phasing out this transition for the existing users. We started with retaining the characters and introducing the new Splashverse environment, then came the communication to tie the story of the Splashverse, and finally, we built the relation between the existing and the new, and the transition was complete.
Communicating across the company
What goes out to our audience is perhaps easier to control than what is shared within the company. Outdated files on the server, different versions of the logos shared on Slack, and the saved MS Office templates on individual systems; the horrors of these past mistakes would all come back every time I reviewed a report or a presentation.
I started to get requests on personal chat, asking for the logo. And then I would get on a 1-on-1 call to get to the actual requirement out of that. Soon we realized that we needed to condense the 100-page brand guideline for all the different teams at SplashLearn.
Born from this, was a presentation addressing all the requests a brand designer gets, laid out conversationally. This relayed the information in its most digestible form, advancing from those simply looking to find the latest logo (PR team looking for the logo) to those who would be creating new ones (a designer working on a derivative identity for a new vertical).
The process of getting acquainted with the rebrand was much easier for the new employees, just like it was for our new audience.
Post rebrand
Looking back, the rebranding of SplashLearn has been more than a name change or a new visual identity—it’s been an opportunity to align on values, bring internal and external stakeholders together, and set the foundation for future growth. It's been an evolving journey so far- sometimes we shape it, but mostly it shapes us and the work we do at SplashLearn.
It's been almost 5 years after the rebrand and we still find ourselves refining the brand guidelines for various applications, including our design system Amoeba (work in progress) and the latest product release- Splashee, the new brand mascot. We know our work is never finished—as our product evolves, so does our brand, helping us fulfill our commitment to create an engaging and fearless learning experience for all.
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