HOW DO YOU RE-BRAND AN APP TO ATTRACT NEW USERS, WHILE ALSO KEEPING EXISTING USERS CONNECTED? BUILD ON ITS EXISTING BRAND EQUITY.
PROJECT
When Taptalk approached me, they were in a moment of transition. They lived in the shadow of Snapchat, but were looking to tell a different kind of story from other apps living in the space between messaging and social media.
WORK
Rolled out new company name + built new messaging to support the rebrand
Developed new messaging across all consumer touch points - marketing communications, UX copy, website, press release, press kit, pitch
Collaborated closely with product design team on UX/UI, and visual designer on an integrated verbal/visual identity
Produced promotional video
PRODUCT STRATEGY
One of the core features of Taptalk was that people could send one-tap photos and videos that would disappear after being viewed. Though this was a main part of the product, I challenged the leadership team to rethink it.
With a primary market made up of an older demographic, I argued that this audience would want to keep the moments that their loved ones shared with them to reflect on later. I also noted that the ability to archive these messages would differentiate the brand from apps like Snapchat, which were geared towards a younger audience, sharing less sentimental moments.
Ultimately, they agreed and restructured the app’s entire user experience to allow for archiving photos and videos that users exchanged with loved ones.
NAMING + NOMENCLATURE
The company's name, Taptalk, was too close to a competitor's name, so it needed to be changed for legal reasons. With a radical update in UX, mentioned above, the name also needed to point to the fact that you could now save the photos and videos that you shared with family and friends.
In wanting to preserve the brand equity and intuitive nature of the word 'Tap', but also push away from the ephemerality of services like Snapchat, I came up with the name TAPSTACK.
Riffing off of the new name, we then had to redevelop the nomenclature within the product. When I started working with Taptalk, they called every photo sent a 'Taptalk' and very video sent a 'Video Taptalk.' So, once we renamed the product Tapstack, I advocated for these three changes:
When someone sent a photo to another person, we would refer to it, simply, as a 'Tap'.
If it was a video, we'd call it a 'Video Tap.'
We'd also call the collections of sent and received Taps 'Stacks', pointing back to the brand name itself. Tapstack became an app where you could save Stacks of collected Taps.
VIDEO PRODUCTION
I worked with one of my talented video partners to produce this one minute promotional clip for Tapstack. Our goal wasn't to create a tutorial, but rather to show how fun it was to share the moment, and how easy the app was to use.
VISUAL IDENTITY
Unlike Snapchat which allowed users to apply filters or do retakes, Tapstack was all about delivering a real slice of life, fully unfiltered.
To this end, I worked with a talented design partner, Annabel Mangold, to piece together the new visual identity for Tapstack.
We recommended going with handwritten headlines, wabi-sabi shapes, off-center letters, and imperfect grids, to reflect the authenticity and beautiful imperfection found in the spontaneous nature of a person sharing their own real life. Not all of our recommendations were used, but the following are some of the ideas we delivered.
WEBSITE CONCEPT
TAP ANIMATION STYLE OPTIONS
IMPERFECT UI ELEMENTS
FINAL APP ICON
WEBSITE MESSAGING
APPSTORE MESSAGING
RESULTS
The company rebranding was featured news on TechCrunch.
We received excellent user feedback:
"Perfect for a quick hello. A quicker, more fun version of Snapchat. Love it.
"Excellent app! This app makes it easy to share moments and your location at once. Ideal for spontaneous things."
"Awesome way of communicating. It's direct and personal. So much quicker than other messaging tools out there. Love it!"
"Awesome photo/video sharing app! I use this app on a daily basis. You can put your friends in groups and share the same content with everyone at the same time. You will enjoy Tapstack!"