When It’s Rebrand Time… Don’t Forget to Bring Your Tribe.
Wow. Just… wow.
Powtoon has grown from a scrappy startup, looking to help fight the epidemic of face-meltingly boring business presentations, to a fully-fledged video and presentation platform. During that time, there has been one group — one constant through all the ups and downs: our customers.
All of ‘em. All 18 million-plus of them. Our tribe.
Why do we call our customer-base a tribe? What makes them more important than a conversion statistic? Why am I even talking about this?
A tribe is so much more than a family. It comes with criticism, praise, feedback, and a connection that is built on mutual trust. When a company successfully engages a tribe, they feel the need to compliment its successes and criticize its faults. Why would a company put up with such vocal customers? Simple: Because that’s how we grow.
And yeah, our tribe is pretty unique. It extends beyond the data, deeper than the buzzwords, and into a place of genuine connection. And we didn’t just happen into a big, awesome caring tribe. For Powtoon, engagement is not just a Facebook stat; it’s our obsession.
Engagement: How much deeper does it get than a customer thinking they work for you? Our biggest challenge is to create a genuine relationship — the feeling that our users are part of our universe. Even if it’s one to a million, it feels like it’s one to one. — Ilya Spitalnik, Powtoon Founder & CEO
There are always important moments when you’re unsure exactly how the tribe will react. The rebranding initiative we launched last month was one of those times. After all, these tribe members fell in love and grew to trust our old brand. How would they react to the change? Would they feel we’re becoming too corporate? Will the features they love disappear? Will we leave them in the dust? What if they just think our new look is crap?
What happened after the launch proved just why we define our users as our tribe.
We were absolutely blown away by the response to our rebrand. Not only does it confirm that we’re headed down the right path, but we can tangibly feel that connection to our tribe. It’s not just excitement for a new feature — it’s pride in a job well done.
We’ve been wowed. Not only by the positive comments, but also by the criticism and feedback — it shows just how much our tribe cares about being part of a top-level platform.
And, in fact, we even see tribe members supporting each other through their rough spots:
Channeling both the positivity and feedback we got from our tribe, we are forging ahead toward the coming stages of our upcoming launch.
Oh, you thought the new look was the end? Nope, we have a bigger plan:
Challenge accepted!
