Skype
From a few thousand
to half-a-billion users
Freeing the world’s conversations
When we started working with Skype, they were in beta. Their website was a single page. And no-one knew how to pronounce their name.
They were sold for $2.75bn while we were working with them. And we don’t need to tell you where they are now. So instead, we’ll tell you how we helped them get there.
Brand
When they first came to us, Skype had a logo and a name, but no visual identity or tone. We developed this colourful, appealing style for them, coupled with a very human voice. In a world of ‘VOIP’, ‘peer-to-peer’ and other jargon-laden dullness, we made Skype stand out above everything else.
Skype homepage films
Strange as it sounds, a tech firm having videos on their homepage was really out of the ordinary when we made these. While everybody does that now, our films still feel as fresh and engaging as when we made them.
Skype Stories
Our client mentioned that hundreds of people were writing to them, sharing stories of how Skype had changed their lives. Big, dramatic stories, charming little stories, you’d-never-believe-it stories – they’d heard them all.
Well, it seemed to us that those stories should be shared with the world, to bring to life what Skype can do. So we hit the road, and recorded some.
Skype Nomad campaign
To show the world that Skype was now mobile, we sent Rebecca, the ‘Skype Nomad’, on a non-stop 33-day world tour. Using Skype to keep in touch, of course.
Fans trusted Rebecca because she was honest – grumbling when she was having a rubbish time or the technology didn’t work, and letting fans decide where she went next. She captured content everywhere she went, which we edited into films. And then, when she had everyone’s attention, she did some simple product demonstrations.
They worked. Sales of Skype mobile (including the 3 Skypephone) shot up 9% in the UK and 18% in America. Blog views topped 800,000. And she won us an IMA Award. Thanks, Rebecca.
Brand 2.0
When the time came for Skype to grow up a little, we evolved their brand identity with rainbows and clouds, and made a new brand book.
We also showed how the brand could talk to a business audience, and work as a platform.
Magic TV Campaign
As Skype grew, some potentially valuable customers stubbornly refused to sign-up. Our research revealed that they’d heard of it, but needed to hear about Skype from Skype. So what better way to show they could be trusted than a TV ad?
We created a package of idents and spots that ran on CNN globally, targeting business travellers.