A premium identity to power a new business model

SketchUp has had a tremendous run. A decade of growth from startup to Google sub-brand to acquisition by Trimble, a global industrial technology company. But sometimes even success creates a need to evolve.

Sketchup came to us with an open ended challenge and a specific business imperative. Their legacy identity promising accessible “3D for everyone” no longer fully reflected their present scale or future potential. They wanted to reposition the brand to reconnect with its founding passion—and they needed this new identity to power a pivot to a SAAS business model.

Approach

We studied the landscape, audited competitor and aspirational products and brands, deep-dived audience psychographics, and articulated a systematic plan to help SketchUp evolve into a high-end tool for AEC professionals, while building brand love with a new generation of designers and makers.

Challenge

People’s perception and choices aren’t one-dimensional. You don’t build lasting, meaningful relationships with pros by simply appearing “professional.” SketchUp needed a brand story that connects with its audiences’ felt experience, goals, and needs. A story that’s bigger than simply efficient, polished, and easy to use.

Insight

Aspirational brands like Apple position professional tools by appealing to higher-order emotional drivers, framing their story in the context of real world aspirations specific to their audience.

Solution

What creative ambition unites SketchUp’s users? A reason to work so hard to design and build in the real world?

A rallying cry for all creatives, from AEC professionals to students exploring a first spark of inspiration.

The future
is yours
to build.

Key External Transformation

The new tagline establishes a brand story grounded in real-world impact. It connects to the ambition that drives all creators, uniting AEC professionals with the next generation of designers and builders.

Tagline + Logo
Animation

Brand Film

What’s the life-cycle of an idea that has the potential to change everything?

Right now, “the future” is still an idea—
One of many born every minute…

Key Cultural Evolution

Our audience strategy sparked innovation everywhere. Dev teams put our personas up on the wall—the new perspective on audience needs inspiring new approaches to product.

Hero Creative

Visual Identity and Product Architecture

Project Overview

Agency

Trollbäck and Co.

Case study coming soon

Creative Context

We delivered a new brand strategy, audience strategy, product architecture, and key messaging to clarify SketchUp’s value to existing and growth audiences, align internal efforts, inspire new innovations in product development, and even guide spend.

Strategy + Positioning

  • Intake
    Conducted stakeholder interviews and ongoing close collaboration to define the challenges and identify the opportunities

  • Landscape Analysis + Whitespace
    Performed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the landscape, and competitive set to identity potential whitespace

Brand Identity

  • Brand Strategy
    Evolved Brand Purpose, Pillars and Promise

  • Product-Market Strategy
    Updated product vision statement to serve as an “elevator pitch” for the brand’s next decade of innovation

Audience Strategy

  • Demographics + Psychographics
    Conducted quantitative research and qualitative analysis on key audience segments

  • Audience Personas vs User Personas
    Created a new framework of brand-level audience personas

  • Key Success
    Personas were so accurate and clarifying that they were even adopted as high-level user personas guiding and inspiring feature and product development

Product Marketing

  • Product Architecture
    Re-engineered product and subscription tiers

  • Product Development
    Helped internal teams assign feature sets to new offering

Brand Story

  • Tagline
    Wrote the new tagline, designed to plant a flag for the evolved brand story

  • Brand Film
    Developed script for a new brand video