FaZe Up
I need a volunteer for my new brand model.
The idea is two concentric circles, how you stand out on the outside, what you stand for on the inside. Called a Brandstand. Simple.
But how to avoid the clichés and NDA’s?
Let’s go for it. FaZe Clan.
What is it?
A global esports team, one of the biggest, with superstar gamers across Fortnite, Call Of Duty, CSGO, Rainbow Six, FIFA, PUBG and others. All with their own channels and ‘fandoms’.
Plus content creators across different games.
And now other content for other niches.
A D2C business in merchandise and clothing.
A software developer.
A talent-management business.
An advertising agency.
An investor in new food products.
Even a TV and film studio.
With a host of high-profile backers across sport, music, film and radio.
So what do I see when I look at the brand?
A logo.
Reversed ‘F’ joined to a ‘C’. Dynamic, sharp, aggressive.
A name. Faze. To disturb, disconcert, confuse, upset, surprise, shock, frighten, daunt.
The Z in a cap. Starting at the other end.
The colour red. Stimulation, adventure, empowerment, performance, boldness, anger.
Almost entirely young men. Living a kind of fantasy man-child life. Some now very rich, thanks to YouTube. They even have FaZe Clan mansions.
And I see teams, gangs. All these fandoms held together in one interconnected web. A giant clan, each part feeding the others. Safety in numbers.
And the whole thing in a state of perpetual motion. Like a flywheel, which is the model Zoe Scaman used to describe the brand in her recent post (without which this Brandstand would have been two empty circles).
And what does all this make me think and feel?
A brand that doesn’t follow the rules.
A world where everyone has their thing. That’s what unites them.
To boldly go. But not necessarily you. Mostly it’s gamers watching other gamers.
And what’s cool is being dictated. This isn’t a brand for the true maverick. It’s still leaders and followers.
So what does Faze Clan stand for?
My first thought was ‘Nothing FaZes us.’
But they have their own phrase. ‘FaZe Up’.
This is how Faze Banks, one of the founders and owners, explains it:
“To FaZe Up means to win against opposition, to prevail, to become unusual when they want you to be business as usual. To drip positive energy from your pores, not only in your best but your worst days. FaZe Up means to move through the phases of life on an incline, literally. To rise in any and all situations. After all, even if you're alone against a million gallons of water, so long as you're the highest point, head above the water, you're alive.”
So let’s write ‘FaZe Up’ in the inner circle.
And in the outer circle let’s put the assets.
The logo.
The colour red.
The elite talent.
The ever-growing but intertwined fandoms.
The endlessly entertaining new content.
And then let’s give the whole thing a gigantic spin.
