Major League Lacrosse (MLL) launched an identity rebrand across its assets – including its logo, website, social media, the draft, player videos and its umbrella creative approach – in order to reposition and become faster, more aggressive, innovative and more player focused.
The new logo, which aims to reflect the young, intense, and bold nature of the game, features a fresh red, white and blue color scheme with an added new silver gradient around the shield: a shield centered around the player.
The fresh approach aims to reflect the rich history of the league, the geographic growth of the sport and the expanding reach of MLL.
The rebrand kicked off with a switch-off and –on of the league’s Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts immediately ahead of the 2019 MLL Draft.
Followers across all social channels were informed about the rebrand via a 10-second clip of Boston Cannons’ attacker Mark Cockerton.
We're Ready.https://t.co/nljrortbPj pic.twitter.com/72bsLbWx4k
— Major League Lacrosse (@MLL_Lacrosse) March 8, 2019
24 hours later, MLL unveiled its fresh brand assets across all of its social and digital platforms.
The new branding included a NASCAR paint initiative,
VROOM VROOMhttps://t.co/dF0aQLA47S pic.twitter.com/0QG7IFyXrg
— Major League Lacrosse (@MLL_Lacrosse) March 9, 2019
and a 20-second spot fronted by Bayhawks star Colin Heacock announcing “We’re ready, are you?”
Get Ready. pic.twitter.com/HnXaffYkxN
— Major League Lacrosse (@MLL_Lacrosse) March 6, 2019
This was followed by ‘I’m Ready’ content fronted by several other MLL players
I’m ready. #OutlawsNation @MLL_Lacrosse @DenverOutlaws pic.twitter.com/uryi8xcvyg
— Sam Boik (@SamBoik) March 8, 2019
I’m ready. Are you? #GearUp pic.twitter.com/y1aF5dDqkc
— Bryce Wasserman (@BryceWasserman) March 8, 2019
I’m ready #YEARONE@BostonCannons @MLL_Lacrosse pic.twitter.com/ylMdjz8gtO
— Mike Orefice (@mikeyfaceoff) March 9, 2019
#ImReady #WeAreAllIn #ATLBlaze2019 pic.twitter.com/K2JKAH58pc
— Liam Banks (@LB3Liam) March 9, 2019
I’m Ready#GearUp pic.twitter.com/fprI2qwjEr
— Sean (@SeanLawton24) March 8, 2019
and teams.
We’re ready.#ReadyForBattle#MLL pic.twitter.com/xgwdfhfvw4
— Boston Cannons (@BostonCannons) March 8, 2019
We're ready. #TheNewTexasTradition pic.twitter.com/n5eXiJb9zi
— Dallas Rattlers (@RattlersLax) March 8, 2019
The timing of the release aligned with the promotion of the 2019 Draft, the first league event where the rebrand was activated.
Looking back at the 2019 #MLLDraft, presented by @CascadeLacrosse https://t.co/lKU42xbioS pic.twitter.com/87pvamGtjT
— Major League Lacrosse (@MLL_Lacrosse) March 11, 2019
The MLL, which included a new website design (its first for a decade)in conjunction with the rebrand introduced by a ‘Letter From The Commissioner’.
https://majorleaguelacrosse.com/news/2019/3/11/letter-from-the-commissioner.aspx
Dear Fans,
It is an honor and a privilege to serve you and the lacrosse community as the Commissioner of Major League Lacrosse. It is hard to believe that I recently passed my one-year anniversary in this role. In the past year I have been most impressed with the unyielding passion for MLL from our owners, partners, players and fans.
The passion around Major League Lacrosse is rooted in a deep and rich history. The blue and green shield has been worn by legends of our game, such as John Grant Jr, Casey Powell, Mark Millon, Michael Watson and Ryan Boyle. It is with paying homage to the past and an eye on the future, that Major League Lacrosse is proud to introduce a new moniker and branding.
In the summer of 2018, we undertook a comprehensive fan research project to better understand you, our fans. We sat with our players, partners and our teams to better understand our role in the game of lacrosse and where we can better position ourselves for the future. We have made great strides this past year in advancing our league by increasing our salary cap, expanding our schedule and increasing our roster size; but our work had only just begun.
Today we introduce our fast, aggressive, innovative, and player focused logo. The logo reflects the youthful, intense, and bold nature of our game. It features a fresh take on a red, white and blue color scheme by adding a silver gradient around the shield. And, most importantly, the shield centers around our players.
In the upcoming months MLL will present our players to you in a manner reflective of the unparalleled talent and passion they put forth on the field. We will feature magicians like Zach Currier, show stoppers like Colin Heacock and hype men like Nick Mariano.
The next class of Major League Lacrosse stars will be selected in the 2019 MLL Draft presented by Cascade this Saturday, March 9th at 7:00pm. For the first time in league history, we invite you to stream the game directly from our website www.majorleaguelacrosse.com.
Thank you for your support of Major League Lacrosse. We are extremely proud of the work our players put in on and off the field and the experience our teams offer to our fans. We hope that you will share in our excitement as we look forward to the start of the 2019 season on May 31.
Get Ready…..
Alexander Brown
Major League Lacrosse Commissioner
Comment:
The rebrand, worked on with brand experience and communications agency Trioka/Mission, followed a major mid-season 2018 research and stakeholder collaboration project.
This included a comprehensive fan research study with Nielsen Sports carried out with stakeholders, fans and players.
It aims to reflect and chart a path towards a bright future for both the sport and the league.
Links:
Major League Lacrosse
https://majorleaguelacrosse.com/
https://twitter.com/MLL_Lacrosse
https://www.facebook.com/MajorLeagueLacrosse
https://www.instagram.com/majorleaguelax/
Troika/Mission Group
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