Evolving Brand & Creative Style Design System

Rakuten Advertising

Why this project is featured:

The complex level of creative repositioning followed Rakuten's acquisition of six marketing technology businesses in four years, leading the company to rebrand itself four times in the last ten years.​

Rakuten had an ambitious goal to develop a marketing footprint globally, initially focusing on the United States market leading to an acquisition spree that meant merging identities – and cultures. Onboarding and migrating newly acquired business entities towards a unified brand identity pose significant design challenges. These challenges stem from the need to strike a delicate balance between preserving the acquired entities’ unique identities and integrating them seamlessly into the overarching brand. Designers must tackle issues such as aligning visual elements, messaging, and brand voice across diverse entities while ensuring that the unified brand conveys a cohesive and compelling narrative to existing and new customers.

Building a Corporate Brand - a Timeline

2005
ACQUISITION
Rakuten Acquires Linkshare

Rakuten, referred to as the "Amazon of Japan", looks to diversify and globalize their business buying the US-based Affiliate Marketing company Linkshare.

2007
ACQUISITION
Linkshare Acquires TrafficStrategies

Adding a Paid Search company paved the way for Affiliate focused Linkshare to begin the expansion of their digital marketing portfolio. It kept the Tampa, FL office open until 2023.

2012
ACQUISITION
Rakuten Linkshare acquires mediaFORGE

MediaForge was a digital display marketing company and was acquired for their expertise in retargeting. This expanded the number of Rakuten Linkshare offices to five (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Tampa, Salt Lake City).

2013
ACQUISITION
Rakuten Linkshare acquires Popshops

Rakuten Linkshare acquired product datafeed aggregator, Popshops, with a database of affiliate retail products available to publishers and website niche-builders. This added 

2014
ACQUISITION
Rakuten Marketing acquires DC Storm

DC Storm was a disruptive digital attribution company with a robust technology and a user-friendly dashboard that would help enhance marketing strategies providing better insights and data. Businesses could refine their campaigns to target the right audiences with the right messages at the right times.

2013
REBRAND
Rakuten Linkshare Rebrands

The addition of Paid Search, Display Advertising and a datafeed aggregator expanded Rakuten Linkshare's portfolion and the new brand reflected the aspirations as a one-stop shop for digital marketing.

2013
REBRAND
Rakuten Linkshare Rebrands Paid Search

Rakuten Paid Search was rebranded as service brand of Rakuten Marketing.

2013
REBRAND
Rakuten Linkshare Rebrands mediaFORGE

mediaFORGE was rebranded as Rakuten Mediaforge, a service brand of Rakuten Marketing.

2013
REBRAND
Rakuten Linkshare Rebrands DC Storm

DC Storm was rebranded as Rakuten DC Storm, a service brand of Rakuten Marketing.

2015
REBRAND
Rakuten Marketing Rebrands Affiliate Network

To feature an omni-channel marketing approach, Rakuten Marketing rebranded their core services in a move towards a house of brands approach.

2015
REBRAND
Rakuten Marketing Rebrands Display

To feature an omni-channel marketing approach, Rakuten Marketing rebranded their prime services. 

2015
REBRAND
Rakuten Marketing Rebrands Attribution

To feature an omni-channel marketing approach, Rakuten Marketing rebranded their prime services. 

2015
ACQUISITION
Rakuten Marketing acquires Deep Forest Media

This acquisition was for the mobile platform technology and was not a featured part of any branding strategy, but it did offer an opportunity for the marketing team to broaden the discussion at the beginning of the shift to mobile marketing.

2016
ACQUISITION
Rakuten Marketing acquires Manifest

Manifest was the first automated advertising platform that used product feeds to show the right product to the right customer and had a very close relationship with facebook. 

2016
ACQUISITION
Rakuten Marketing acquires nextperf

Nextperf was a provider of retargeting solutions and artificial intelligence applied to display advertising.

2018
REBRAND
Rakuten Marketing Rebrands

The changes in the logo were subtle in the Rakuten Marketing logo, featuring an updated font to align with the updated parent company, Rakuten. The changes in the business strategy was much larger moving away from the house of brands to a branded house approach.

2019
REBRAND
Rakuten Marketing Rebrands

Rakuten Marketing's parent company rebranded and had all over their 40+ subsidiaries move into a branded house model - mirroring the look and feel. The timing coincided with Rakuten beginning sports marketing partnerships with FC Barcelona and the Golden State Warriors.

2019
REBRAND
Rakuten Marketing Rebrands to Rakuten Advertising

Corporate parent, Rakuten once again rebranded and Rakuten Marketing took advantage of the opportunity to align the business name with a more intuitive brand.