There was nothing wrong with our old name. We liked it. A lot. We own the trademark. We have a great domain name. Clients and partners have known us by that name for 10 years.
So we changed it.
We spend a lot of time telling clients what it’s like to change the name of their company. How difficult it can be. How emotional it can be. How many conflicting opinions there will be. How to know if you should rename. How scary the trademark reports are. How many little logistical things will have to be addressed. And the big one: how to choose the one name that will become yours from a list of words that feel nothing like your brand (yet).
We knew what we were talking about… mostly. But it had been a while since we’d experienced this process for ourselves, as “clients,” and we figured we were due for a refresher. We were more right about that than we expected to be.
Going through this exercise was hard. It was humbling. We emerged with a much greater understanding of and respect for what we ask our clients to go through, and we have revised some of our guidelines and processes as a result. Oh, and bonus: we have a kick-ass new name.
Our new name has us more excited about the future of our agency than we’ve been in a while. That’s not a reason to rename, but it’s a nice side effect.
So why Prequel?
A prequel is a work that forms the backstory for a preceding work. Most often, our clients come to us with the makings of a brand and a brand story, and we help them by providing the beginning - a name that introduces their brand story… their prequel.[mic drop]Want to hear even more of the story? Get the play-by-play version.