Let the Community Rename You: what Sprite actually did
TikToker Emily Rose (@emilyrosedesign) ran a daily series redesigning brand logos to match how her Mexican mom pronounces them. Her Sprite video, spelling it 'Esprigh', went massively viral. Sprite responded by swapping its TikTok profile picture to the Esprigh logo, crediting Emily Rose as the designer in its bio, and posting a video of a can wearing the new logo with the caption 'Should we call the mini cans esprighitos?'
The tension it resolves
A global brand wants to feel genuinely claimed by a specific cultural community without seeming like it is performing that connection.
The challenge it solved for Sprite: How does a global brand earn real cultural belonging with a specific community without it feeling like a marketing stunt?
The mechanism
The brand replaces its own official identity with the community's affectionate, imperfect version of it, and then invites the community to keep building from there.
The lesson
Most brands correct the informal ways people use their name or product. Instead, find the informal version that already exists and make it official. When you adopt the community's mutation rather than defending your own standard, you hand them a sense of ownership they will defend on your behalf.
In another world
A running shoe brand officially naming a colourway after the faded, beaten-up nickname its most loyal runners already use for it, then selling that colourway under that name.
Source: fastcompany.com
Where this could apply
A mass-market instant noodle brand whose packaging name has long been shortened or mispronounced by its youngest buyers in a consistent, affectionate way, especially one trying to refresh relevance without changing its recipe or price point. Also fits a bottled water brand that has built a loyal gym and fitness community and knows those users already call the product something other than its label name, consistently and warmly, across social content.
FAQ
What is the Let the Community Rename You pattern?
The brand replaces its own official identity with the community's affectionate, imperfect version of it, and then invites the community to keep building from there.
Which brand proved it works?
Sprite, in beverages (United States). jugnu's Kosh tracks 413 such patterns across Indian and global brands.
How do I apply this to my brand?
Run your brand challenge through jugnu. It diagnoses the tension underneath your problem, checks whether this pattern fits it, and builds ideas on the patterns that do.
This is the story. Every Kosh card also carries a transfer layer: the consumer insight underneath, the principle that moves across categories, and the boundary conditions where it breaks. jugnu applies that layer to your brand when it builds ideas.
Wondering if this pattern fits your challenge? Run it through jugnu and find out.
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