How MailChimp's fake brands made real business sense

Lucy Aitken

Online marketing platform MailChimp lay the foundations for a stronger relationship with creative-minded professionals in the US with the launch of a series of playful sub-brands.

Background

A stalwart at awards shows in 2017, including a Cyber Grand Prix at the 2017 Cannes Lions, was B2B online marketing platform MailChimp and its Did You Mean MailChimp? campaign. Unveiled in January 2017, this vibrant campaign brought new levels of creativity to a hitherto by-the-numbers B2B category. In the process, it unleashed a colourful mixture of playful experiences to its core 15m-strong audience and beyond.

This was Mailchimp's first major marketing campaign and, right from the start, it spoke of a brand that was unafraid to break with B2B category convention. Even the inspiration for it was unorthodox:...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands