Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-17 14:41:36
CONTEST HOLDER

Just to clarify the sentence above "When designing the logo, please keep in mind that we may use a different brand name in different markets due to local language"

What this was indented to mean was that we may choose to use different product names in different countries (such as transliterating or translating your winning name into Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Arabic or Russian).

Therefore, if your proposed brand name is heavily based on an English word, please design a logo that separates the logo/concept portion from the brand (or at least doesn't use the brand as an integral component) so we can swap out the name with the translated/transliterated version in non-English speaking markets but still maintain an overall consistency of brand look.

Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-18 05:19:52
CONTEST HOLDER

Thanks for all the entries so far. We're going to select a winner no matter what, so keep them coming!

Just a couple of points for clarification:

1. The voting/polling feature is just one of the many components of the service. Please don't make it a core part of the name. Need to be a little more generic. Think feedback, messages, post-it notes etc (but don't step on 3M's trademarks!). A general purpose "postboard", "messageboard", "virtual board" type brand works better than something incorporating polling or voting.

2. For more inspiration, visit http://www.singtel.com/messagelive- this is a key partner of ours who has re-branded our service to meet their own branding needs. Lots of info and short videos on their site about how the product works to get the creative juices flowing!

3. Our core market currently is Asia. We are headquartered in Singapore and have customers across the region. This means we can't use US centric terms such as "cellphone". They're called "hand phones", "mobile phones", "handy phones", "keitai" or similar here, depending on the country. Including words like "wireless", "mobile", "on-the-go" etc. is fine - just careful with "cell" as a pre/post fix as it means little here.

Keep the entries coming. We're watching all the time time and will stay right up to date with feedback!

Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-18 15:02:21
CONTEST HOLDER

Some more inspiration... Our Japanese team came up with "Petachi", "Petacchi" or "Petarin". "Peta-" in Japanese is to stick, or attach a note to something like sticking a note or a vote to a board.

Maybe there's something similar in English that would work...

Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-18 15:11:58
CONTEST HOLDER

To all who have been brandstorming so hard, thanks for all the suggestions! We are watching this really closely and love what we're seeing. Keep up the good work.

Going to take a break for the night so the feedback will stop for a few hours. While I'm asleep, here are a couple of case studies from recent events where we've deployed the service that may offer some inspiration:

http://dev.nx.sg/lab/cs/mb-casestudy-Twenty20.pdf

http://dev.nx.sg/lab/cs/mb-casestudy-SNDP2009.pdf

Looking forward to seeing what's been suggested in the morning!

Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-19 15:01:59
CONTEST HOLDER

Thanks for all the entries so far. There are about four so far that have really grabbed our attention, of which three have the .com domain available.

Keep going with the entries. I'll be watching and commenting over the weekend, and taking the best to my business partners on Sunday for their input.

Meanwhile, a few more words for inspiration...

We like the terms "voice", "show", "event" and "board". All of them talk about what we do. We are all about giving the lone person in the audience a "voice" that they might not have without our service. Maybe they're too afraid to ask a question on a microphone in front of a huge audience. Maybe their language ability isn't great. Submitting a question or comment via SMS is a quick and easy way to get their voice heard.

"Board" rings true to us because of our original "MessageBoard" concept and product name. A board is something you can stick things to, it's a notice board, a message board, a display board, a white board, a black board, a cork board. We are looking at dropping the "Message" in front as it's too much about sending messages which is just one of our features.

Keep the entries coming, and thanks to all for taking all my comments in such good spirit.

Regards,
Toby.

Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-19 16:01:57
CONTEST HOLDER

One last thought for the night... Most the entries so far have been double-barrel words. Things ending in Board especially which I certainly won't discourage.

It would be good to see some one-word ideas. A Latin sounding brand that relates to the service concept. Think of Picasa (pictures), Allinity (consulting), Documentum (doc management). All these we like. Failing that, nonsense words can work like Jing or Vark. These would definitely need the .com available though.

Not saying these are what we want but none of the entries so far have been along these lines and it could take the contest an interesting direction. Brush up on your Latin/Spanish/Greek conjugation and let's see what comes up!

Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-22 11:49:28
CONTEST HOLDER

Everyone,

Thanks for the fantastic entries. We reviewed this list today with our board and investors, and we're down to a shortlist of two. The entries scored 5/5 are the two shortlisted versions.

Congratulations to makaveli and griffindesign. Let's see what you two can come up with in the graphic department now.

Regards,
Toby.

Posted By: phacker
Posted On: 2010-02-22 16:56:25
DESIGNER

So you are not open to new suggestions?

Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-22 17:34:36
CONTEST HOLDER

Hi phacker,

I'm always open to new suggestions, right until we crown the winner. It would need to be a killer name to get into the running right now though. But don't let that stop you - very interested in what you can come up with.

Thanks,
Toby.

Posted By: tphipps
Posted On: 2010-02-27 13:09:41
CONTEST HOLDER

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to enter, and especially for those who worked so hard with me to come up with just the right name. There were lots of GREAT entries, and we had a very hard time narrowing it down to two.

The two finalists were "XpressBoard" and "CrowdConnex", both of which we liked very much. We put the question to our international staff, and it came down to the fact that "XpressBoard" was a LOT easier to pronounce and understand for non-English speakers. "CrowdConnex" is a great name, but didn't travel as well, and is downright difficult to say in Italian and Japanese where the "w" sound doesn't really exist. Actually in Japanese, it would come out as sounding identical to "CloudConnex" which would give us a nice Cloud Computing connotation, but not quite what we're looking for.

Anyway, great job everyone, many thanks to all who entered, and congratulations to griffindesign for the winning entry.

Anyone who's interested in trying the service is more than welcome to signup and give it a go for free at http://www.nexmedia.com.sg/messageboard and once the re-branding is complete, at http://www.xpressboard.com

Regards,
Toby.