A brand that multitasks.

Octo – What did we do:

Brand workshops | Positioning | Brand Strategy | Brand Design 

Project overview

Octo, previously known as “The Vault Group”, was structured as a holding with a group name that was managing 3+ brands, each having their own name and focusing on a single service. Altogether, they were providing industrial and commercial businesses with industrial services such as cleaning, sweeping and line marking.

When Mike, the Vault Group owner, came to find us, his ambition was to merge all of these services under one umbrella brand, which then will be able to overarch the full business in a more meaningful way. He needed us to name this new business.

Research and Strategy

We’re an evidence-led agency.

Through a thorough workshop lead with Mike, we understood that this company had a unique fleet size which could accommodate most jobs from start to end. This was its greatest point of differentiation and a feature that was shared across the brands of the group.

The second main feature that we highlighted during our research phase, was the integrated service that these companies were providing. Because of their service breadth, they were able to accommodate most of their clients’ needs, all across the board. The vault group was a “one-stop-shop” business for industrial clients.

This multi service aspect combined with the scale of the business allowed it to be very agile, to respond quickly and easily to their clients, with a sense of accountability, seriousness and goodwill, ultimately making it a partner of choice.

Infused with this clarified positioning, we worked on a few naming routes that we believe would convey its unique breadth, scale and efficient delivery.

Industrial services is a functional, quite straightforward industry that isn’t driven by emotive or aspirational cues. However, we believed that the great relationships Mike was sustaining with his clients were quite different from what competitors were doing, therefore were another way to make his business stand out.

As we pictured The Vault Group as a multitasking, efficient, smart and sensible business, we associated it with… an Octopus!

This very smart animal was ideally conveying the ability of managing lots at the same time (multiple tentacles) in a very smart way. And, in search of a short, sharp and agile name, we focused on the first two syllables. It both kept it concise and widened the connotation to “eight” (8)- the basis of the octagon, also a reference to the many sides of the service this company was providing.

This concept grew on Mike more and more until he was certain that was the right one. Octo it became.

Creative and Brand Design

Moving to design was incredibly inspiring! Our creative team explored many options and finally landed on a very industrial, technical route, building the full identity around a relevant and impactful typography.

Referring to the eight faces of the octagon, as to the multiple maintenance services work that the company performed, we picked the stylised “O” as the brand icon to be derived on all brand material.

Conclusion

Very soon after we handed over the new brand material, Mike launched the amalgamation process, proving how confident he was that Octo was the right name for his multitasking and integrated business.

On behalf of Octo, we submitted our work to the 2023 ANZ Transform Awards and were amazingly proud to win Silver for Best naming strategy. A well deserve reward for an amazing project.

We look forward to the next chapter of this successful company!