Rocket Mortgage Gears Up for a Brand Restage

When Quicken Loans rebranded as Rocket Mortgage in July 2021, it sought to align the product with its parent company’s (Rocket Companies) brand while showcasing its use of technology throughout the home buying process.

Now that it’s built some awareness with the new name, Rocket Mortgage is giving its brand a refresh.

In partnership with creative agency of record Miramar and global design and innovation studio Otherway, the brand has evolved its tone, narrative, look, and feel, to be debuted with a new campaign early next year.

The agencies spent nine months studying the anatomy behind iconic brands such as Airbnb, Apple, and Nike to better understand how to position Rocket similarly.

“I’m not going to rest until Rocket is one of North America’s iconic brands,” Rocket chief marketing officer (CMO) Jonathan Mildenhall told ADWEEK.

“When you work with Jonathan, the ambition is always big,” added Jono Holt, founder of Otherway. “The bar is set pretty high, which is pretty exciting. This was a ‘once in a blue moon’ brief where you get to work with such ambitious people who want to create something so special.”

Making mortgages emotional

Recognizing the challenges presented by the category, the teams eventually came up with a concept that leans into the emotion of home buying.

“Mortgages is a bit of a barren land in terms of marketing and communications, but one of the most emotional things you’re going to do in your life is buying a house or refinancing a property,” Holt said. “How do you create an iconic brand? It’s all about emotion and feeling.”

He added the focus was on capturing the pride of buying a first home, as well as the emotions people go through during the process—”ecstatic happiness, unrivaled sadness.”

Mildenhall, who was CMO of Airbnb, called this project the most public brand restage he has ever been involved in, noting that it will be reflected in the cityscapes of Cleveland, where the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers call Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse home, as well as Detroit, where Rocket is headquartered.

Under the hood

Holt said he and his team have spent a lot of time in Detroit over the past year, as Otherway set up a brand studio there to support the project.

Mildenhall and his team are not just focused on an outward-facing refresh, but on making the home buying process easier on the Rocket platform.

“If Rocket is going to grow market share, we need to make it simpler for our clients, reduce the complexity, reduce the friction, and basically build an all-in-one destination,” he said. “The younger the audience, the less patience they have for complexity and friction.”

“Companies have benefited from creating confusion and this sense of difficulty,” Holt added. “How do we make it more accessible and less confusing? It’s all about ease of use and making life less complicated for people.”