Exotanium
Exotanium is a company founded in 2019 that has created a cloud resource optimization and management platform using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) that helps enterprises reduce spending in the cloud by up to 90%. That’s a mouthful! Iron’s challenge was to develop a brand that could tell this complex story and make it feel approachable, and authentic for the technology masses. Through our Brand Discovery process we helped uncover their key market differentiators and identify the salient points that would help us develop this fun, colorful, and casual brand that can speak geek to everyone from programmers to CEOs of the biggest tech giants.
ClientExotaniumServicesBrand Discovery | Branding | Web | Print | Social MediaYear2020Linkexotanium.io
It All Starts With Research
Pulling Back the Covers with Brand Discovery
The Exotanium brand is not just a logo, a tagline, and a colorful identity– their brand is so much more. Most importantly, it is an audience’s perception of the organization. To correctly position a brand, we first need to gain a better understanding of the culture and values of the organization and its stakeholders. We dive deeply into the mission, vision, and why of an organization through collaborative workshops with the client team.
Key Values
A few of the key themes that came to the surface during our Brand Discovery session with the Exotanium team were:
Cloud Disruptor: While most competitors boast of cloud computing cost savings, they often insist on redesigning older tools to be compatible with their cloud computing solutions which is costly and time-consuming. Enter Exotanium, who excels at delivering clear and easy-to-use products that empower their customers to take control of their cloud computing costs, without reengineering their legacy tools.
Client Collaborator: Exotanium’s collaborative approach to product development allows them to create products that are not a one-size-fits-all tool, but are custom fit for each of their client’s unique needs.
Smart: With a team of leading researchers from Cornell University, the Exotanium engineers have a world-class understanding of cloud-based software engineering and also have an appreciation of the pain points clients face in cloud computing services.
A Robin Hood/Underdog Brand: By pulling back the layer of complexity from the established cloud computing giants, Exotanium’s small team makes cloud computing technology more transparent and equitable.
Exotanium’s Why:
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We believe in a world unbound by high cloud computing costs and complexity– A world where cloud optimization creates the resources and capabilities for innovators to build what’s next.
Developing Concepts that Define the Brand
Once we had the Discovery phase in-hand, we then began the visual design process with in-depth design research, exploring what the cloud computing landscape ‘looks like’. We then engaged in a series of design sprints to review typography, colors, iconography, and other imagery that could capture the values and spirit of the brand.
Building the Final Logomark
After review of our explorations with the client team, we focused in on a simple expression of a compartmentalized, optimized cloud icon, partnered with a handsome modern type treatment and vibrant & friendly color palette.
“It has been wonderful to work with Iron for the last two years! They understood our needs and were able to transform our ideas into a visually appealing brand that suited our company to a T.”
Hakim Witherspoon, Co-Founder & CEO, Exotanium
Fast
Developing a new website was the first order of business after the brand identity had been created. We built the new site in an existing Wordpress theme to speed development time and keep download speeds quick, with an average page load time of 2 seconds.
Vibrant
It was essential that the new site felt and performed on-brand. That meant it would be bold and colorful, with all messaging sharp and focused on explaining the benefits of the complex Exotanium products.
Accessible
Making sure the new site performed well across a wide variety of devices, regions, and browser platforms was important to ensure the Exotanium team could engage with all audiences. Building in the WordPress platform also made it easy to update the site as needed.
Social Engagement
Attracting visitors to the new website was instrumental in building awareness and potential customers for the Exotanium sales team to reach out to. Our approach was to create approachable messaging with colorful, relatable images that engage with folks who are in the target audience. We also monitored our monthly LinkedIn ad campaign so we could refine messaging and imagery to get the best traction.
2X
Average time visitors spent on website: 2.52 minutes per visit – that’s over 2x the general industry average
55,000
People reached on average with each monthly LinkedIn ad campaign
1,767%
Visitor increase to mobile website in 2021 after second LinkedIn campaign
Marketing Materials
Beyond the core brand elements, developing the look, feel, and messaging for other marketing collateral was key to tell the Exotanium story. From data sheets and pitch decks, to trade shows and event displays, the casual voice was key to help disarm audiences and convey the stats and details of their products.
