When three housing organisations merged across three boroughs, they needed to become one — one landlord, one identity, one voice residents could trust.
The merger left a tangle of legacy materials, inconsistent messaging, and brand confusion. With a pre-approved logo and two colours (blue and pink), my brief was to build everything else: a complete brand system that felt modern, human, and reliable.
Following a major merger, Housing Plus Group had 2,100 staff scattered across multiple locations—on the road, desk-based, frontline, and working from home. There was no cohesive mechanism to broadcast messaging, build connection, or foster a sense of being one organisation rather than two groups forced together.
The brief: launch Workvivo, an internal two-way communications platform, in a way that would excite staff and encourage genuine participation—not performative engagement.
The complications:
The platform needed a visual identity that felt neutral (not favouring either legacy organisation), approachable, and engaging. The challenge was making staff want to use it rather than seeing it as mandated corporate communication. The new HPG rebrand had launched a few month’s early, but Workvivo needed to feel like an environment to share and not another corporate update channel.
The breakthrough came unexpectedly: a leftover soft toy sloth in the office became the inspiration for the platform mascot. Initially designed for “Super Users” (staff champions who would help drive adoption), the sloth quickly became the face of Workvivo itself.
The mascot strategy worked because it:
Platform Visuals:
Launch Campaign:
Mascot Development:
Adoption rate: 73% staff sign-up rate within the first month – which included the summer holiday period.
Cultural shift: The platform helped create a sense of being one unified organisation rather than two separate entities operating under one name.
Team connection: Staff in large, distributed teams used the platform to get to know colleagues they’d never met in person, building relationships across the merged organisation.
Staff engagement: Measurable increase in engagement and positive sentiment post-merger.
Super User sentiment: The mascot and special branding made Super Users feel valued and appreciated. They saw the role as meaningful rather than burdensome, driving better platform advocacy.
The sloth became more than a mascot—it became a symbol of organisational connection and culture shift.
