Brands
Junglee Games partners Influx to unveil new branding
MUMBAI: One of India’s largest gaming companies, Junglee Games announced its association with a creative agency, Influx, to helm its plans for rebranding. The decision for rebranding follows Junglee’s evolution into a powerhouse gaming company and the brand’s prime focus on skill-based games. In addition to rebranding, Junglee plans to continue its association with Influx and leverage the creative agency’s expertise for its individual gaming brands.
Commenting on rebranding, Ankush Gera, Founder & CEO of Junglee Games said, “We founded Junglee Games back in 2012. At the time, it was a one-man show in San Francisco. As we found ourselves navigating the challenging, but exciting, market in India, we wanted to be seen and known as playful, fun and entertaining. Our brand, logos, and digital presence have all largely been representative of that playful identity. Games of skill are a large part of our business and the catalyst to our success has been deep trust from our players in our platform and service. As we find ourselves on the forefront as one of the leading gaming businesses in India, we felt that our old brand was no longer conducive to the company we are today.”
In the seven years since its inception, Junglee Games has gone on to build entertaining but highly-skilled, real-money gaming platforms like Rummy and Fantasy Sports. Their rummy game, Junglee Rummy, has more than 5 million users. The company has clocked in 80-100% growth year-on-year and is now a team of 200, spanning 7 countries. Furthermore, Junglee Games is expected to cross 20 million users across all its games this year, with hundreds of millions of dollars estimated to be transacted at its platform.
The idea of rebranding was simple; Junglee was in pursuit of establishing a brand presence that would represent its current brand identity, and also hold true to the legacy it aspires to establish. The company also wished to challenge the status quo and represent play and fun, skill and thrill, all at once. The company also wanted the rest of the world to get an inside look into the company, its core values, and the conscious culture it embraces. After four months into the process, Junglee Games finally unveiled its brand new identity.
The Rebranding
Junglee Games has built beautiful social games and RPGs, but games of skill are core to its DNA. Thus, the company wanted to design a logo that would represent play and fun but also showcase the element of skill. The brand new logo of Junglee Games is a twist on a dice, which has a door. While dice represents the fun and excitement of gaming, the door can only be opened with the right skill. Furthermore, the door allows gamers to escape and get immersed in a fun, artistic, entertaining experience.
Commenting on the association, Ankush Gera added, “Given our size, it’s easy to work with larger agencies, but we’re a company that makes a lot of decisions with heart. So we wanted to find an agency that would look at our rebrand beyond a client project. We wanted someone who would challenge us creatively but also fully align with our vision. We found that in Influx. We knew from our first meeting that the team had the heart to understand how important a rebrand was for Junglee Games and the expertise to translate ideas into actuality. Needless to say, we are extremely thrilled at the association and are looking forward to working with them again on our individual gaming brands.”
Harish Thilakan, founder of Influx added, “The gaming space is a crowded one. In Junglee Games, we saw a really driven team that had scaled at an impressive rate and had a story that deserved to be told. It was important to represent Junglee as a “grown-up” teenager, with the exuberance of youth but balanced with the clarity of thought and vision. We believe this identity speaks volumes of their infectious work-culture.”
Every section in Junglee’s website has been crafted to touch on things that matter, including plenty of open positions, along a deep dive into its culture and values. The brand new corporate identity reverberates with elements that move and pulsate and immerse users in a gamified experience.
Brands
Uber launches hotel bookings feature in partnership with Expedia
From hotel bookings to room service at your door, the ride-hailing giant is making its boldest push yet into everyday life
CALIFORNIA: Uber is done being just a taxi app. At its annual GO-GET product event, the world’s leading mobility and delivery platform unveiled a sweeping set of new features designed to plant itself at the centre of how people travel, eat and shop, hotel bookings included.
The headline move is a partnership with Expedia Group that lets Uber users in the United States book hotels directly within the Uber app, with access to a catalogue that will eventually grow to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members get 10 per cent back in Uber One credits on all hotel bookings and savings of at least 20 per cent on a rolling list of more than 10,000 hotels globally. Vacation rentals from Vrbo, Expedia Group’s home-rental brand, will be added later this year. The partnership is expected to expand beyond the United States. From June, Uber rides will also be integrated directly into the Expedia app, with push notifications sent to travellers ahead of hotel check-in to book discounted Uber rides for the duration of their stay.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber, framed the expansion in terms of the modern condition. “Uber is becoming an app for everything, helping people go, get, and now travel all in one place,” he said. “We’re all living through a moment of real cognitive overload: too many apps, too many decisions, too much noise. At the end of the day, our job is to help people reclaim their time, spending less of it managing the logistics of life and more of it actually living.”
Ariane Gorin, chief executive of Expedia Group, struck a similarly ambitious note. “Travel should feel effortless, and this partnership gets us one step closer to offering a seamless traveller experience,” she said. “By connecting our two-sided marketplace with Uber, we’re bringing Uber rides directly into the Expedia app and Expedia Group’s lodging inventory into the Uber app through our Rapid API technology. Together, we’re helping travellers spend less time planning and more time enjoying the journey.”
Beyond hotels, the product announcements come thick and fast. Travel Mode, available within both the Uber and Uber Eats apps, offers curated recommendations on local favourites, tourist destinations, OpenTable restaurant reservations and on-demand delivery to hotel rooms. Uber One International means the membership programme now works globally, allowing members to earn credits on rides abroad that can be redeemed once back home. A new Shop for Me feature lets users request items from any store, even those not listed on the app. Eats for the Way allows riders in select cities booking an Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to have a drink or snack waiting for them in the car. Voice Bookings, powered by artificial intelligence, lets users book a ride conversationally, without touching their phone. And a redesigned One Search bar consolidates results for places, food and items across the entire Uber platform in a single query.
Uber has now logged more than 72 billion trips since it launched in 2010. The question it is now answering is what comes after the ride. The answer, apparently, is everything else. Whether users want a hotel in Paris, a coffee in the back of a car or a snake plant from the local garden centre, Uber would very much like to be the one to provide it. The app economy’s land grab has a new front-runner.
NOTE: The image used is AI generated and only for representational purposes.
