MailChimp said “hi” to the world in a way that felt right to them: by having fun with their name.

We created a massive, integrated search campaign featuring nine stand-alone pieces with names that all kind of sound like “MailChimp.” Using mispronunciation as our creative device, we made cultural activations for almost every type of media you can imagine—snack food brands, musical groups, hairstyles, instruments, nail art, beauty trends, cinematic short films, OOH, influencers, editorials, digital and social media.

These seemingly disparate executions were all part of a highly orchestrated web of digital and physical content, connected by mispronunciation and design.

We knew that if we made something intriguing enough, people would search for it.

And when they did, we’d be there waiting for them, Then we’d tell them a little story about a company that believes doing things your way isn’t just more fun, it’s good business.

Since our campaign consisted of so many different executions across so many different types of media, we wanted to create something that could showcase them all in one place. Illustration was the best way to do that and served as another creative opportunity for our campaign as a whole.

So we collaborated with illustrator duo Brosmind to create a mural featuring artistic interpretations of all our executions (MailShrimp, JailBlimp, KaleLimp, MaleCrimp, FailChips, VeilHymn, NailChamp, WhaleSynth and SnailPrimp).

The mural had its own unique look, but still felt like a part of the MailChimp universe. At the end of the campaign, we put it out into the world in high-profile areas as a fun way to help our audience connect the dots.

We surveyed 1,000 people in our specific target audience (entrepreneurs, small businesses, creative class), and like a secret code, our campaign spoke to them loud and clear.

Those who saw the campaign showed higher awareness (+20%) and overall affinity (+18%) for MailChimp than those who did not see the campaign, 85% had something positive to say about it and 70% said it gave them a better sense for MailChimp’s personality.

Those who saw the campaign showed lifts in key brand attributes over those who didn’t see it, saying MailChimp is a brand that’s inspiring (+25%), authentic (+19%), for me (+14%), innovative (+13%), very different from others in the category (+13%).

The campaign garnered 775.3M total impressions, 3.8M organic searches for MailChimp and campaign names, and delivered 29% more visits to MailChimp’s digital ecosystem than anticipated. With $3.52M earned media value, we succeeded in creating culture rather than chasing it.