Background Introduction

In 2012, Luo Zhenyu (known as "Fatty Luo") founded the knowledge sharing talk show program "Luogic Thinking", delivering knowledge and cognition with his charismatic personality, attracting tens of millions of fans and becoming a phenomenal program. Luo Zhenyu also accumulated a set of skills and techniques for producing knowledge services. At the end of 2015, Luo Zhenyu used this set of methods to create the "Dedao" app, which provides efficient knowledge services for lifelong learners. However, Dedao also faces a problem: its users mainly come from fans of "Luogic Thinking," and growth mainly depends on recommendations of old users. So, how should Dedao explain to the rest of the consumers what it is?

At the end of 2017, Dedao found Hua & Hua. Luo Zhenyu had already known about Hua & Hua and went straight to the point, saying, "Dedao is a new brand that has been established for two years. How can we use Hua & Hua's Super Signs and super slogans to break through the new users and establish foundation that could last at least 50-years for the Dedao brand?"

At this time, the knowledge service industry, which had been created for less than two years, was already crowded, and many products imitating Dedao appeared on the market. Dedao must clearly differentiate itself from other brands and let consumers recognize it at a glance, establishing a brand recognition barrier.

Strategic Direction

In Hua & Hua's view, Dedao's business is a grand anthropological event that needs to be viewed from a 100-year time frame. Facing such a new thing with a 100-year value thinking scale, Hua & Hua proposed a "two 100-year" brand strategy for Dedao: designing a "super slogan" that works for 100 years and a "Super Sign" that works for 100 years.

Super Slogan

Dedao has the best teachers, the best quality control, and courses, making it synonymous with high-quality knowledge. Dedao represents "knowledge."

We found a super sentence structure that has been circulating for over 400 years - the famous quote from 16th-century English philosopher Francis Bacon, "Knowledge is power." We injected this familiar, ubiquitous, and culturally subconscious phrase, which contains the "force" of human culture, into the Dedao brand, creating the super slogan for the Dedao brand: Knowledge is at Dedao.

"When knowledge is at Dedao," this sentence is straightforward, unforgettable, and easily remembered, firmly establishing the authority and familiarity of Dedao. Learning knowledge does not require going anywhere else, just use the Dedao app, firmly occupying the word "knowledge." Moreover, the cultural matrix of this sentence, "Knowledge is power," has been alive for over 400 years. According to Hua & Hua's method, the longer the history of the cultural matrix, the longer the life it will have in the future. "Knowledge is in Dedao" will be useful for 100 years.

Super Sign (Figure 1-3)

1.  Brand character

In Greek mythology, Athena was the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, and the owl, as her source of information, became a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. The owl, as a representative cultural matrix of knowledge, has a history of more than 2,000 years. If Dedao can occupy this cultural matrix, it will symbolized knowledge and become the "Owl of China."

Having found the prototype symbol, our designers set about 'privatising' it and creating a Super Sign that would be exclusive to the brand. Firstly, the head of the owl was enlarged and the eyes were highlighted. Because the big eyes have a communicative power and are staring at you, people can spot them at a glance, and the visual impact is strong and stimulating enough to be memorable. Secondly, the feathers on the owl's body were removed and simplified, and the colour was changed to orange for a brighter and more penetrating colour. Thus, the Super Sign - the big-eyed orange owl - was born!

2.  Brand Logo

The vision for the brand is to become a new type of liberal arts college that serves lifelong learners. Since it is a university, we aim to benchmark world-renowned institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. Therefore, we combined the "owl" which representing knowledge and wisdom, the "book" representing knowledge, the shield outline representing prestigious universities, and the brand name "得到" (meaning "get" or "obtain") into a four-in-one design combination. Thus, a logo comparable to world-renowned universities that can last for 100 years was born: the "得到" owl logo. The "得到" owl logo is memorable at first glance and can be remembered for a lifetime. Moreover, it is an auditory and describable design, which reduces the cost of dissemination.

Meta-media Systems (Figure 4-6)

The essence of brand work is to create a Sign, signify them, add value to them and protect them. With a Super Sign, we have to invest in it, accumulate brand equity and continue to grow the Super Sign.

1.  The first step is to use it in the company's own office environment.

Each experience point is a photo spot for visitors to take a photo. 2.

2.  Let Super Signs enter the app user experience journey

By the end of 2018, the total number of users of the Get app had exceeded 26 million, with an average of one million users opening the app every day.

We have embedded Super signs in the app's opening page, home page, newbie packs, medal system and other user experience journeys to enhance the user experience.

3.  Used the Super Sign to create a sense of ritual in the offline classes

In the signage system, the super Signs are embedded in the sign-in area, the interactive area, the classroom site, and the students' learning materials to provide students with a sense of identity and belonging to the brand.

4.  Developing Super Signs into super products

During the "Double Eleven" period in 2018, the first batch of Get Owl derivatives were launched on the Dedao app mall, attracting a large number of users to buy them.

A large number of users bought them. Dedao also partnered with Xiaomi to launch the "Get × Xiaoai Audiobook Knowledge Gift Box", which sold out of 15,000 units in just 20 hours of launch.

5.  Super Signs entered the opening ceremony of Dedao University

In September 2018, "Dedao University" was established, adopting an online and offline learning format: online delivery of learning content, offline delivery of social content.

In October 2018, Dedao University held its first inauguration, taking the brand from an online app to offline. The establishment of Dedao University marks a new step towards a new type of liberal arts university.

6.  Super Signs in Luo Zhenyu's "Friends of Time" New Year's Eve speech

At the site of Luo Zhenyu's "Friends of Time" New Year's Eve speech in 2018, a number of owl symbols were set up as photo spots, attracting a large number of audience members to queue up to take photos with the owls. The owl image was also spread with the New Year's Eve speech, more people became familiar with it.