OG is perhaps the most fun we’ve ever had naming a brand and only a handful of people in the world know what it actually means.
NAMING
I’ve learned that the process of original naming and naming for a re-brand are actually very similar. Over the last 5 years, I’d say 4/5 clients we’ve worked with feel strongly that they must ensure their brand name resonates with their intended audience/fans. It’s viewed as a critical means to gauge market fit success.
In that same time, I can confidently say that my experiences have shown that the name of a brand is far less impactful than many believe. With one rule: Make it stand for something for everyone.
What I’ve found across of all our naming projects has been that the name of the brand needs to be loved by those who own it. What that name means to someone is often always determined by how that brand makes them feel through: 1) Perceived quality of the logo and 2) Consistent, thoughtful presentation in everything the brand does.
In the distant past I often questioned the reason I’ve bought a phone named after a fruit I haven’t eaten for a while. Or why when I met someone who didn’t say Nike with the ‘ey’ at the end, if it really mattered. The story behind two guys who sent the Nike founder a letter to ask how to pronounce the brand is a fun one to check out.
I sense it’s because we actually treat brand names in a similar way we treat people’s names. The closer we feel we relate to the brand, the more likely we are to defend it’s pronunciation. What we care about most is more how the name makes us feel (and how reliable this feeling is).
So in 2015, thanks to Johan and Tal (the early founders of OG Esports), I was able to prove and live out my naming hypothesis dreams. The team was formerly known as Monkey Business. They were getting a lot of love because of the people on the team and what they made their fans feel. Creating the name for a brand new organisation seemed like a challenging task at first. It ended up being an experiment gone right.
NAMING PROCESS
Quick sidetrack to talk naming in-practice. I’ve found that once you have an identity in place, it’s a lot easier to focus your efforts on naming. You seek out words, phrases and imagery that relates to something you want to stand for and stand by. Unlike a person, most brand owners don’t want to change their name completely unless they feel disconnected from it themselves.
If you let it, the naming process can be a long process. This goes for all brand naming. My experience has taught me a golden rule: the more the people involved with agreeing on a name, the less likely you’ll find a good name.
If you are one of those deciders, here’s a super simple process that I follow when creating a name (with an example):
- It’s logical, but not often intuitive, that a larger group should nominate one or as few people as possible to be deciders of the brand name
- Create phases in the brand naming process and attach a final deadline to it. For example, if you set a deadline for 14 days, spend the first 3 days brainstorming, spend every 2nd/3rd day shortening the list until you are left with a shortlist of 3-5 names by 2 days before the final deadline.
- When brainstorming for names, keep thinking of what the name/words make you feel. Seek inspiration from the areas of life you love; music, movies, sports, anything you feel a connection with.
- Check the availability of these names online. Here are two great sites for checking this.
- Shorten the list to 3 names that you must choose from
- On a day before deadline day, do not meet to discuss the names at all
- On deadline day, look at your shortlist and find every possible reason why you would not go with each of the listed names. Often, the one you feel like beating up the least, is the one that works best.
So what happens when people don’t agree wholly on the identity?
OG HAPPENS
On an early call with the founders of the team, the abbreviation OG was suggested by Johan. The abbreviation did have a full meaning to it. Tal loved the abbreviation but didn’t like the full meaning Johan proposed. The name was benched until the final day a decision needed to be made.
After reviewing all other names, it was clear that given the timeline, we all loved OG but couldn’t agree on all loving the proposed meaning. We asked ourselves why it mattered if the full name didn’t mean the same thing to everyone.
We decided to test convention. Why not name the brand OG and free it from being forced to mean something? It would mean anything fans wanted it to. So that’s what we did. In hindsight, the name represented the type of people at the heart of the team: non conventional. We agreed that the press release would not include the name of the team and that OG would mean whatever you wanted it to mean.
The result was an experiment gone right. Fans loved the logo but didn’t know what it meant. Where did they say what it meant? After realising that the team wouldn’t spill the beans, speculation grew across the scene. Talent at events, other pros and esports media kept asking What does OG mean? This even continues today.
I remember soon after the Frankfurt Major win, someone had literally set up a website called what-does-og-mean.com or something similarly named. Every time you clicked or reloaded the website, a new full name would show up. I wish I could find that site today (if it’s still up).
It’s been 5 years since OG was founded and while the original full name isn’t known by more than a few handful of people, the proof is in the results. OG is whatever full name you want it to be because even if that differs from person to person, what matters is what it makes fans feel.
I put in the NYXL logo up top because the journey from the initial reactions to the brand versus where it is today.. are just so crazy to see. The owners of the brand were confident in what they put out even in the face of overwhelming criticism. In Part 5 (last one of the week), I’ll share the story of how much fun we had with one of the best logos in esports and how I learned that what you do with a logo means a lot more than what it looks like.
