Before starting at Ardoq, I visited ardoq.com, and the website was dark and heavy. The main banner on the website called out the heavy statement:
"Old EA is dying.
The rise of New EA"
The choice of colors and tone quickly put my thoughts on an epic space opera film series well known to many of us. Reading “EA”, I was wondering how the world-known gaming company fitted into this fast-growing digital transformation software company that I have heard so much about.
“EA is Dying”
As CMO at Microsoft Norway, software marketing was not new to me. However, the audience “Enterprise Architects” was not a huge target audience for Office 365, Dynamics, or Azure. I quickly learned that “EA” had nothing to do with gaming and that EA, the Enterprise Architecture domain, was not dying at all.
This was Ardoq the disruptor, sending shock waves into the market and making noise. They wanted to be seen, and seen we were. In 2019, we were recognized within the Enterprise Architecture market both by Forrester and Gartner; as “a strong performer” and “Visionary”. It was a very clear branding strategy, and it worked to some extent. The Enterprise Architecture field was in need of disruption. The major vendors in the space are mainly built on legacy technologies, and the ones who suffer are the users, primarily the Enterprise Architects.
Who Are We?
Ardoq is a company of people who are driven by success, but also people that are both caring and open. It's a company full of people that want to achieve something extraordinary. I’m amazed by the customer focus and the agility of this organization - how we adapt and adjust to what’s around the corner. I have learned that the founders established this company because they were trying to solve the change challenges faced by organizational architects of all sorts who lacked the tools necessary to do the job.
Ardoq, the product, is about many things, but one key component is crowd sourcing information from people around the organization, people being the source of truth. The data collected is then automatically put into the graph giving an overview that can help make the right decisions on what to change - to achieve what organizations want.
We know that there are people out there trying to drive change projects, improve their businesses, improving customer value, change business models, and improve employee satisfaction. These “change makers” can be titled Enterprise Architects, or Project Managers, Product Owners, Digital Officers, or other things. What they have in common is that they want to make a difference in their companies. These are the people we care about, and that we want to help.
How Do We Want to Be Seen?
Over the last couple of months, we have slowly rolled out our new branding, rounded off by a new web design in April. We have brought people into the website, faces, colors, and changed our tone-of-voice.
How would we move from this dark and sinister color palette, faceless expression, and dooming tone-of-voice? We asked ourselves, who are we, and how do we want to be perceived? We knew a lot of Ardoqians who missed the Ardoq soul in our branding. They missed seeing faces and a down-to-earth tone that could make what we do, understandable to all. We missed colors and good energy. We wanted to bring an evolution to our brand that built on all the good things we have in our company - the belief in positive change and a bright future. And make sure that everyone we speak to understands that we are here to help and how we can help them.
Thanks to our agency, Tomorrow People, who have been great facilitators through this process. Thanks to our customers who have helped us on the way. And last but not least, thanks to all the Ardoqians who bring Ardoq to life with their drive and engagement every day.
