ZooplaCopied

The UK property portal Zoopla launched in 2007 and was bought by private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018 in a deal reportedly worth £2.2 billion. Chief marketing officer Gary Bramall told Marketing Week that the acquisition, a shift in marketing and product, and market momentum led to an entirely new brand for a 'holistic Zoopla'. Other than the name, he said, everything changed. It launched in April 2021, just as lockdown began to lift, which Bramall said was unintentional.

The work was co-created by brand consultancy Zag and Zoopla's in-house team. Research showed home movers constantly juggle emotion and rationality, Creative Review reported, and Zag executive creative director Neil Cummings said the aim was to bring back joy to an often stressful, transactional process. The answer was 'journey lines': a ribbon running through the identity to say that moving home is never as simple as A to B. Zag design director Dan Green said it reflects the twists and turns of buying a home. The lines form ligatures in the new wordmark and typeface, frame imagery and run through animations.

The signature purple stayed. The typeface, made with Family Type, has levels of expression that can be dialled up or down, including a fully animated character set, said Zoopla design lead Gabriel Weichert. Illustrations build from a main journey line with thinner detail lines. Motion follows rules Green described as smooth moves, quick redirects and pings and pops. The site and app were updated, and a homeowners' hub, My Home, launched.

Creative Review's verdict was measured. It found the rebrand somewhat familiar, but said it brought energy and personality to a process that is painful for most people moving home, and that its warmth and sentimentality recalled what had worked so well for B&Q during the pandemic. The research behind it found home movers constantly juggling emotion and rationality. That is a sharp insight for a property portal, and the warmth is a smarter differentiator in a category that usually sells square footage.

Creative Review found it somewhat familiar but full of energy. That is fair. The ribbon device is a little too obvious, and joined-up lines have been everywhere since. But it is executed with real care, and making a property portal feel warm is no small thing.