Oxford University Press
From Dictionaries to Data
Strategic Challenge: To re-brand the world's most famous dictionary as a powerful data tool.
Oxford University Press (OUP) owns the world's most famous dictionary - the OED. But dictionaries as we know them are no longer required, yet the language data within them is. Data that can be used for all sorts of things.
Creative Challenge: To create a brand that appealed to technology giants, academic institutions and startups.
We had to develop a single brand that appealed to very different markets.
What emotions and personality did we want to convey?
This re-name and re-brand was all about the power of data and demonstrating the millions of things people could use it for. This brand needed to appeal to developers and researchers. It had to feel adaptable to their needs - both modern and fluid. Our inspirations for this brand came from looking into the Northern Lights and feeling a sense of wonder. To reflect the vast capability of this product, we used the brand archetype of the 'magician' - one that combines science with imagination.
We have worked with Oxford University Press over many years at a brand level - defining their corporate brand. Oxford Dictionaries required a new name and brand that captured the organisation’s transformation of the dictionaries market. Moving from dictionaries to data.
We recognised Oxford's heritage but we wanted to not only reposition the Dictionaries market but also OUP as forward thinking and innovative - something their research showed the brand lacked.
Language is powerful because of what we can do with it.
Working with Oxford University Press we developed the new name - Oxford Languages, to represent the shift from selling dictionaries to licensing data.
This brand wanted to represent the power that language and data gave innovators, researchers and pioneers. Partnering with leading academic institutions, enterprising startups and technology giants has embedded this content at the cutting edge of language research and global communications, powering the programmes and products that are equipping communities around the world with authoritative, evidence-based content of the highest quality.
