At a glance
What happens when your offer and ambition outgrow your legacy brand? Where do you go next, and most importantly, how do you ensure your loyal guests come with you?
Vivamayr Altaussee approached us with this challenge, to help them move away from the Vivamayr identity, transforming their brand into one that’s fit for the future, and continue to inspire their high-profile clientele. All while protecting what made them special, and retaining their leading European luxury medical position.
From positioning and experience hallmarks definition, to naming and visual identity – we created their new, breakthrough brand, tested with VIP guests to ensure maximum relevance. We then led the external and internal launch of the new Mayrlife brand, creating impact in this luxury medical resort space.
The background
Family-owned Vivamayr is an Austria-based medical health resort, previously consisting of two locations: Vivamayr Altaussee and Vivamayr Maria Wörth.
With ambitions to evolve their offer and take their vision of being a lifestyle brand to the next level, Vivamayr Altaussee decided it was time to separate itself from the Vivamayr family and align the brand to their ambition. And so, our journey began.
The opportunity
It was clear from the start that this place offered something different – a life-changing experience going far beyond relaxation or a quick fix.
As a medically-led resort, Vivamayr Altaussee focuses on gut health as the core of their holistic approach. Their solutions are individually tailored to every single guest, resulting in a unique experience and radical health benefits for everyone making the journey to this remote Austrian village, nested between a lake and glacier.
Retaining this magic was crucial. Our aim was to take it the next level, enabling guests to bring their learnings home with them and turning this destination into a true lifestyle brand – all while preserving and enhancing the qualities guests already loved.
A journey of discovery
Positioning and purpose definition
Taking their most loyal guests on the journey with us, we interviewed and read hundreds of feedback forms to encapsulate what made the existing proposition special. Next, we started imagining how it could be enhanced based on extensive benchmarking, trends, and commercial audits.
Experience hallmarks codification
Following extensive commercial and experience audits, we made the new brand manifest across the whole guest journey by creating a set of distinctive signature experience hallmarks, supported by an updated pricing strategy. These were designed to optimise operations whilst enhancing the guest experience in unique ways.
Culture and Employee Value Proposition creation
Not forgetting the importance of colleagues in the successful execution of this rebrand, we took the opportunity to also encapsulate what makes Mayrlife a magnetic place to work by defining its Culture and EVP, before activating it tangibly for all the different teams.
The name
Moving away from the Vivamayr brand also meant finding a new name. This was a particularly challenging task, considering Vivamayr Maria Wörth, their former sister location, would continue to operate under the original name. We had to ensure that our new name would continue to attract, and not alienate, our original audience. Still, it needed to speak to the concept of optimised living and the profound lifestyle change that comes with going through the FX Mayr process. We started by defining key territories to ideate under. They acted as our creative platform.
It was all hands, and ideas, on deck. Together with the client, we locked ourselves into a (virtual) room until we found the one. This marked the start of ‘Mayrlife’. A name that carries the core philosophy of their treatments – the Mayr method – as well as the long-term impact on one’s lifestyle. This name would breathe life into the brand and mark the start of their new journey.
We stayed true to our audience – and, in our opinion, came up with an even better name.
THE LOGO
We used the name and strategy as jumping off points to create a logo icon and word mark that capture Mayrlife’s spirit and heritage. We started by distilling the findings of our discovery stage into a set of themes, which informed our semiotics analysis and the creative sprint process that followed.
The creative sprints focussed on creating marques that explored Mayrlife’s unique products and services, whilst ensuring the creation of a logomark that speaks to the business’ unparalleled guest experience. The aim was to create a symbol for the brand that can be used flexibly across the wider visual language – a direct reference to the brand’s positioning; the key to optimised living.
That’s how the Astaar icon was born.
It’s a unique symbol that references two iconic elements: the star (the symbol of renewal, change and hope) + the Edelweiss flower (a flower which surrounds the Mayrlife Altaussee location).
VISUAL IDENTITY
Mayrlife’s visual identity harnesses all we had learned about the business. Our creative exploration centred on creating a flexible and dynamic visual identity that is a sum of its parts. A marque that speaks to the business’ transformational therapies, a peaceful colour palette that draws on the resort’s location and sense of tranquillity, and typography that ensures elegant, visual communication. Our visual identity also stretched across Mayrlife’s product ranges.
A detailed imagery art direction was created to provide a clear guide for brand campaigns and stories. All of which culminated in the reveal of the new brand with a campaign launch across Mayrlife’s refreshed social media channels.
THE LAUNCH
Months of hard work culminated when we activated and launched the brand.
We planned a social media and PR campaign. We began with three routes, all with their own central idea, and ultimately, we landed on the campaign idea that would illustrate Mayrlife’s transformational power for its guests.
We created a social media strategy and schedule, strategic messaging, social assets, and a press pack. Hollywood actress, Rebel Wilson, one of Mayrlife’s most influential guests, agreed to become the first of many famous faces featured in the campaign. She agreed to tell her Mayrlife story through a series of short social media videos. To help guide her story we scripted a story arch. Then, we art directed the filming, produced, and edited the films.
And, with great results. Following their successful social media launch, Mayrlife received record-breaking bookings which caused a temporary shut-down of their booking system…oops!