Google Pay Rebrand | Brand Development, NAMING, IDentity | GLOBAL BRAND LEAD
WHAT
In the midst COVID and our nation’s most divided election in history, we launched the new Google Pay – a radically different paradigm to money and how people interact with their financial lives. As the economy and its impact on individual dreams took center stage, we brought Google Pay into the conversation by elevating the brand above the category – touting financial wellness over wealth, conversations over transactions, insights over information – in a strikingly human and authentic way.
The multi-quarter effort has been an extensive and holistic strategic exercise in identity (establishing visual icons/marks, voice & tone, values, promise), brand architecture (prioritization of subproducts and marquee features), and naming (codifying language between the master brand and hero offerings – ie., Plex by Google Pay).
CHALLENGE
From Google Wallet to Android Pay, and now Google Pay, users have a historically fragmented understanding of what Google Pay is and what it does. At best, we’re an Apple Pay equivalent. At worst, we’re another way for Google to store my credit card info. We can’t be in the business of catch-up, we must perceptually shift beyond feature parity
As a product that comes to life across many surfaces – in-app, web payments, contactless point-of-sale, and more – our brand needs to be self-reinforcing and flex seamlessly no matter the context, no matter the moment
OPPORTUNITY
More than a version update, the Google Pay rebrand is where we introduce Google’s vision of what a better relationship with money should be – what we’ve done for navigation (Maps), for memories (Photos), and for information (Search), we’ll now do for finance
STRATEGIC IDEA
MakE Opportunity Accessible
Google has always believed that access to information is a human right. And we believe access to economic opportunity is a just as fundamental. By standing for something bigger than functional benefits – helping people do more with their money by unlocking opportunity – we’ll carve out our own inimitable space that stirs emotion and sparks action.
Campaign Platform/Wrapper – “Make it Happen”
Google Pay – Brand Vision
EXTRA CREDIT
For those curios, we’ve had to make several shifts pre and mid-COVID. One of my favorite spots that we crafted (see below) for launch was tabled…for now. Enjoy! ;)