Ubisoft, video game publisher and creator of Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Tom Clancy’s video game series and more, has launched the rebrand of its flagship strategy game Anno in partnership with Wolff Olins and Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam was briefed to create the strategy and awareness launch campaign, and Wolff Olins to create the new design system for the brand. The agencies were tasked to ‘spark a desire to build’ while revolving the creative around themes of legacy and creation, connecting and galvanizing its loyal community as well as new players.
After 25 years and seven installments, Anno is a leading builder game in the strategy game market. Following the appointment of Brand Director Haye Anderson in 2023, the first-ever brand purpose and a new design system for the Anno Masterbrand has been developed to celebrate the core Builder}s element of the flagship’s game. The rebrand is revealed in service of the latest installment, Anno 117: Pax Romana, launching in 2025. The game will immerse fans into the Roman Empire.
Wolff Olins created the first Anno masterbrand, one that has the flexibility to align to current and future games of the series. The agency developed a new design ethos “Crafted with Care,” which inspired the creation of a handmade, crafted look and feel for the brand. The brand design features a newly created “A” symbol, taking on different material texture which nod to the different worlds and ages the game can expand into. The mark represents a collective mindset of the Anno community – fusing craft, the power of the human spirit and the ambition of building for future greatness. Meticulous in detail, the symbol guides the community to shape what they build within the game.
Drawing from the classical period, the Anno brand colors, typeface and graphic language form the foundations of a builder in those ancient times. Creating a system that is designed to support the purpose of building and a celebration of craftpersonship. To establish Anno’s new brand platform, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam introduced the trailer for Anno: 117 Pax Romana. Designed as an ode to the builder mindset, the 60-second trailer only features vast empty lands, from fields to marshes, leaving room for the imagination of the players. It is an invitation for all builders to join in and make this world their own. It showcases elements of the new game in an entertaining and unexpected manner, turning away from the conventional codes of the strategy gaming category.
“With 25 years of history, Anno is a unique brand in the gaming industry that lived so many different eras already. In preparation of Anno 117: Pax Romana, it became clear that we needed to crystalize our brand DNA to make sure we talk about Anno in a way that is true to its history, to its community, to its team and to the values we believe in. This new visual identity is fostering all of these elements together and represents perfectly what Anno is today and for the future,” said Stephane Jankowski, Executive Producer.
