Case Study

Mailchimp

Unlocking the potential of a quiet powerhouse.

Industry
Enterprise SaaS
Stage
Enterprise

Mailchimp is a textbook example of why it pays off to be different. An email marketing technology company founded in Atlanta, Georgia, this monkey-adorned startup grew fast. It bec...

Mailchimp is a textbook example of why it pays off to be different. An email marketing technology company founded in Atlanta, Georgia, this monkey-adorned startup grew fast. It became the email marketing leader for small and midsize businesses. Seeking further growth, Mailchimp added to its portfolio 35 cutting-edge AI-driven marketing technology stack. These ranged from database automation to SMS marketing and beyond.

But the revenue dial didn’t move much. Credibility in email marketing wasn’t translating elsewhere. This blocked cross-selling, slowed market share growth, and frustrated sales and marketing. Mailchimp invited COLLINS to unblock that flow of credibility.

We proposed a value creation strategy that embraced:

  • Mailchimp’s technological prowess
  • The market opportunity to make advanced business technologies accessible to small and midsize businesses
  • The company’s self-identity as a little guy fighting for the little guys.

A Promethean-themed value creation strategy, “Fuel small and midsize businesses growth by democratizing cutting-edge marketing technology” launched Mailchimp into its next era.

We rationalized their broad offerings into navigable portfolio architecture. Thirty-five solutions were sorted into five categories. This improved cross selling, informed the product roadmap, and allow them to easily integrate new products without confusion.

Finally, in partnership with the in-house Brand Team, we re-imagined the brand. We sought to capture and elevate that ineffable Mailchimp spirit, a potent combination of wry humor, modest celebration, and a dash of absurdity. We developed a new brand system that, in each element — from the new logotype, logomark, yellow-heavy color palette, typographic system, and hallmark illustration and photographic styles — works to maintain a precise balance between the sophisticated and the surreal (bucking reductive, over-simplified design trends), to differentiate the company in way that was both elegant and, true to its roots, idiosyncratic. The evolution retains all the elements that endeared the brand to its first fervent fans while creating space for Mailchimp to grow and speak with greater authority to a wider audience.

Intuit would later buy Mailchimp for $12B – representing a whopping 10% of Intuit market capitalization. It also represented how a commitment to desirable differentiation drives the value of a company to an astonishing premium.

COLLINS
Caroline BagleyErik Berger VaageBen CrickTom EliaKirsten HarkonenSohee KimMatt LuckhurstDavid NguyenAngie ShihAnna SternoffKris Wong
Mailchimp Brand Team
R/GA

Augments

Augments are add-on components or properties that enhance a design system’s performance. They introduce new capabilities, expand functionality and improve how the system works across contexts.

Augments

Augments are add-on components or properties that enhance a design system’s performance. They introduce new capabilities, expand functionality and improve how the system works across contexts.

Memory Marker

A designed visual or experiential cue that anchors the brand in memory. This signature detail amplifies brand salience and mental availability, driving distinctiveness that supports market growth.

Outsider Art Inspiration

Our illustration style for Mailchimp pays homage to the spirit of outsider art, reflecting the company's identity as an outsider within Silicon Valley. It embodies raw, expressive qualities imbued with creative freedom. Embracing imperfection and a hand-drawn aesthetic, the style celebrates individuality and the unpolished, aligning with Mailchimp’s unconventional and approachable brand ethos.

Language Bridge

A logic of function that translates identity components built for marketing communications into elements engineered for product interfaces or physical environments.

Verbal System

A component augment that synchronizes language, tone and storytelling across all applications. By blending copywriting and UX principles, it ensures the brand voice is consistent, powerful and resonant across touchpoints.

High Expressive Ratio

A performance property that signals a brand system’s ability to generate vast expressive range from minimal elements, resulting in a presence that is both concentrated and expansive.

Impact

12B

Acquisition by Intuit

Intuit bought Mailchimp for $12B, representing 10% of Intuit's market capitalization at the time.

Successfully Moved Upmarket

The rebrand attracted enterprise customers while preserving its appeal to its core customer base of small-business.

Reduced Portfolio Sprawl

We helped Mailchimp consolidate a fragmented set of offerings into a coherent platform, improving customer understanding and internal efficiency.

Increased Distinctiveness

We elevated Mailchimp’s identity system to break from SaaS visual tropes—amplifying recognition, recall and cultural differentiation.

#1

Won In-House Agency of the Year

We helped Mailchimp design, build and grow Wink—their in-house agency—which AdAge Honored as its 2023 In-House Agency of the Year.