GPS tracking and data handling
IoT Venture is a German company that provides an all in one GPS tracking solution. They provide GPS tracking solutions for products, so manufacturers can gather data and work even more efficiently. In addition, IoT helps with the data handling.
The company was founded in 2016, when three entrepreneurs came together to pursue one vision – building cutting edge IoT solutions that support people (and animals) in out of the way places, where traditional technologies (like wi-fi) won’t cut it.
IoT Venture GmbH markets a smart device under the trade brand IT’S MY BIKE and as an integrated white label solution for manufacturers. The device connects e-bikes to the Internet and its main purpose is to locate and recover stolen bikes with the help of their Bike Hunter team. And it definitely seems to work as 3 out of 4 stolen bikes can be found back due to the smart device.
Matching an explosive team growth with a rebranding
Their current brand IoT Venture has always been present but didn’t get a whole lot of attention per se. At the time the company chose to focus on their IT’S MY BIKE brand and build on that. This caused the team to have little feel for IoT Venture as a brand, and therefore could not identify with it. But as the company grew at major speed, going from a team of 5 people to over 70 employees, it became more and more important for employees to feel connected to IoT Venture, so the decision was made to relaunch the brand. The relaunch was also part of the development of their employer branding strategy.
To make the team feel even more connected to the brand, they chose to have clothing made in the new branding for the entire team.
Nina, Head of Marketing at IoT Venture felt it was important not to go for a simplistic T-shirt with just a logo, but to have clothing in a modern fit and cool design that the employees actually wanted to wear.
The Sunday design team received the IoT brand book and created some designs that fit the chosen clothing, the branding and the people who were going to wear the clothing. The T-shirts and sweaters got an embroidery with the logo and the coolest tapes on the sleeves. Their striking purple hue was used as a base with some special details in peach.
The clothing got handed out to the team in a personalised box with their logo and map printed on it. Definitely not a standard piece of clothing, but it really stands out and feels like streetwear fashion. All colleagues wear it on a regular basis at the office but also outside the offices, Nina says.
Sportswear for that extra team feeling
The newest order are sports shirts and got handed out to some of the colleagues already. A lot of them do sports together in groups and will wear it on a charity run during Summer. The team is very sporty and active in their free time so they really appreciated it and were very thankful.
Branded apparel as a supporting factor in an employer branding strategy
The intention of the clothing was to use it for employer branding purposes and to boost the team feeling. In addition to that they also wanted to create more visibility with the brand. The team did a photoshoot at the office with some colleagues wearing the clothing. Those pictures get used on the website, LinkedIn posts and for job openings. Besides that they are also making an employer branding video in which they use the clothing and show how they work together as a team.
Even though the IoT ventures team still has a lot of actions ahead of them, they already feel their employer branding journey with the apparel has been a success.
