Branding is a tricky business — we know. Facebook’s recent snafu sheds light on the why and how of a good (or bad) rebrand.

By Xische Editorial, November 14, 2019

Facebook’s blocky logo is an iconic part of the company’s brand. Since its founding 15 years ago (only 15 years!), the big blue “F” has been an instant reminder of the social network’s ubiquity. That’s all going to change. Facebook unveiled a new corporate logo this month, which one reviewer said looked better for a finance company than the world’s largest social media platform. The new logo, which is the company’s name in generic font, will appear across the Facebook products like WhatsApp and Instagram. The negative pushback got us thinking about the tricky intersection of brand and strategy. 

With the rush to keep brands fresh and relevant, do enough managers consider the simple question: Is your brand ready? Facebook’s recent history is a great example of the dynamics at play. The debate about Facebook’s new corporate logo is really about the health of the company’s overall brand image. Years of data privacy scandals have battered its image and calls to break-up the social media giant have put its house of brands under the microscope. 

When CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this year that he would change the name of popular Facebook-owned applications like WhatsApp and Instagram, the pushback was swift. Perhaps the company is trying to make any possible breakup of Facebook’s core properties  – WhatsApp and Instagram – more difficult by “connecting” to the core Facebook brand. Or maybe Facebook’s leadership is trying to buffer the company’s stock by combining user growth number across all its platforms, not just the core Facebook application. Anyway you cut it, this is not the right time for a rebrand at Facebook. Even if the design language is powerful, audiences aren’t buying the change. 

The astute commentators at Brand New take this line a step further, arguing that “in a nutshell, nothing Facebook does right now will be considered positive and will be judged against their ongoing privacy issues, their role in the previous election, and all the other maladies.” For less exposed brands facing a public relations fiasco, a complete corporate brand overhaul is an attempt to flush out with the old and herald a new day. From that narrow perspective, this new logo with its clear lines and vibrant hues accomplish the task beautifully. 

Let’s pause on the design of the new corporate logo for a moment. The logo was designed in-house in collaboration with well-known designers Dalton Maag and Saffron. The first thing one notices is that Facebook has chosen all caps in a clear departure from the lowercase logo we have all come to love. In contrast to the chunky, rounded-edged, lowercase Facebook moniker, the new all-caps logo with its soft, thinly weighted font and exaggerated kerning is intended to lend an air of maturity and authority to the platform. The purpose of a corporate logo is to be a common denominator that operates as the common visual infrastructure for an organisation with multiple complexions. In a design post about the logo, Facebook argues that, “instead of the company owning a single color, we designed the brand to be responsive to its context and environment. This system allows the wordmark to take on the color of our individual brands, creating a clearer relationship between the company and the products we build.” It is a technique that we have seen work well, but for Facebook at this time the move reads like too much lipstick on a pig. 

Facebook’s new identity might be another misstep for the company, but it is also useful in highlighting how a great rebrand can reposition a business. Consider Google’s Alphabet rebrand in 2015. The company was able to draw investors’ attention to the panoply of products in its portfolio without diminishing Google’s brand recall for the average user. A good brand is a visual extension of business strategy. While this new logo reflects a new, more inclusive vision for Facebook, it is simply not bold enough to overcome the mountains of negative PR the company is dealing with at the present moment. The logo doesn’t significantly differentiate between Facebook the platform and Facebook the corporate parent company. The Alphabet pivot was able to make this shift much more seamless, but bear in mind that Google didn’t have nearly the negative image at the time that Facebook does today. This raises a bigger question. How can the vision and values of a business be conveyed in a subtle but clear way that catches the eye in seconds? What symbols convey leadership, strength, and intention? 

When the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA) adopted an expanded mandate earlier this year, we saw enormous potential to use a new brand identity to tell a larger story. The goal was to create an identity that is fresh and digitally native while honouring the incredible journey Abu Dhabi has taken over the past decades; a reflection of the department’s organisation strategy. 

ADDA leads Abu Dhabi’s digital future by supporting government partners in designing digital services and building new ecosystems. In laying the foundations of Abu Dhabi’s digital future, ADDA aims to enrich the quality of life in the country while creating opportunities for businesses and individuals. With an expanded mandate it was time to refresh the brand design language to reflect the powerful journey Abu Dhabi has taken over the past decades and how it is heading into the future with an open mind. 

Ultimately, the ADDA transformation demonstrates when a brand refresh is necessary and compelling. This is where a brand identity can convey excitement and passion to build something profound.  A good logo, in our opinion, speaks for itself. It becomes a shared foundation and a canvas for limitless stories.