Mango PR: We want to be DDB’s hot little sister
PR agency Mango has gone through a rebranding to position it as ad agency DDB’s “hot little sister”.
The project, carried out by Interbrand, has included creating a new logo and a bespoke typeface for Mango’s Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Hong Kong offices.
Simone Drewry, managing director of Mango Sydney, said: “We were born in 2000 in Auckland and Sydney in quite an organic way for DDB clients needing PR help.
“Mango has now developed its own sense of independence and grown on both sides of the Tasman. We are a boutique agency within a big corporate, but our external persona did not reflect that.” The agency’s capabilities have grown to include event execution, experiential and retail activation along with traditional PR.
Before the repositioning – which was initially let by DDB planner Al Crawford who is now at Clemenger BBDO – the team quizzed clients and journalists on their perceptions of the agency.
Drewry (pictured right) said: “Now when we talk about PR, we talk about helping brands create Passionate Relationships with consumers.” She said that based on the personalities of the agency’s mainly female staff, the aim was to position Mango as “DDB’s hot little sister”.
As part of the project, Interbrand creative director Chris Maclean developed Mangolian – which includes typefaces Mangolian Loud and Mangolian Suit. He handcut Mangolian Loud using paper and scissors. The scoring on the agency logo is intended to represent the scoring when somebody slices open a mango fruit.
Maclean told Mumbrella: “I needed to create something which reflected the fun people that they are, but also that they are businesslike. We also wanted to give them a toolkit to express themselves. That manifested itself with the idea of cut and paste – the very rough aesthetic of being able to respond to things quickly. That led to the idea of us creating the typeface.”
He said that the typeface was also inspired by the work of designed Saul Bass who created the imagery used for the movie Psycho.
Mango’s rebranding comes as part of a wider restructure by the DDB group to become more closely integrated, which has included the appointment of Chris Brown as group MD. Mango has a dedicated planner from within the DDB strategic team. And the agency has also launched a social media initiative jointly with digital agency Tribal which is called Radar. The team of four is headed by Brent Annells. Early Radar projects have included work for Tourism Australia.
Meanwhile, Mango Sydney has won the brief to publicise The Poker Star. As Mumbrella has previously reported, this is a reality show funded by pokerstars.net which will run on Ten and digital spin-off One. Other recent work includes gaming brand THQ – a stunt involving the Mango staff dressed as zombies in Martin Place has this week been shortlisted in the PR Institute of Australia’s Golden Target awards.
Recent work from Mango Auckland included a campaign for Specsavers involving a tour by brand ambassador Gok Wan that gained front page magazine coverage. And Mango Melbourne is currently working on the Ronald McDonald House Charities Ball which takes place in about three weeks’ time.
Drewry said that the next move by Mango Sydney would be to hire a creative director for the PR agency, who would probably not come from a traditional PR background.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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topics
Al Crawford
Chris maclean
DDB
Golden targets
Interbrand
Mango
PR
PRIA
public relations
Radar
Specsavers
Tourism Australia
tribal
zombies
Were they trying to bury this wankfest today?
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Do they have a website yet?
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not sure about the hot little sister positioning, on any level, but love the idea and execution of the Mangolian fonts
(careful with typos!)
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Good question, Jo. yes they do (sort of): http://www.thisismango.com.au/
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
OOOoooooooo… Nice website.
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That’s not a website. It’s a WE ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION notice where their website should be.
They are in PR you say?
And they announce themselves before they have built a website.
Interesting um. strategy.
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Hot little sister? They aren’t very good at p.r. for their own company.
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Great identity to express “passionate relationships”. It is highly differentiated within the category, and bespoke typography really brings the tone-of-voice to life.
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