Joyn — Case study
Adding premium, make it PLUS+
With Joyn launched in May 2019, we were tasked with expanding the offering with a premium service later that same year.
We called it PLUS+.
Not “Premium” — we considered all of our content premium. This would be an add-on to an already strong experience.
It was especially hard to convince internal and external partners not to simply add a “+” to the service name (as in Joyn+).
“Why not? Everyone else does it, right?”
Not quite.
Look closely and a “+” reads as a navigation control. On a digital streaming platform, using “+” as the name of an add-on would collide with how people already use that symbol.
As a proof of concept, we showed how “+” was already used inside the product to distinguish content. It felt like navigation. The name had to follow how the product behaves.
Hence we gave birth to Joyn PLUS+.
To educate users about the new service, we put the word “plus” at the center of the launch campaign.
To prepare this sub-brand for the product, we explored several ways to show PLUS in branded settings.
Option 01
Writing out the word in capitals, followed by “+”.
Option 02
A “pill” that helps isolate PLUS and overlay it on content.
The pill made it possible to tag paid content efficiently, without being too loud.
The rationale for the wording and symbol goes deeper.
Visually, we always looked to represent human warmth through roundness.
The symbol echoes the Joyn mark and the white space around it.
The number 4 also mattered to the brand:
• Joyn — 4 letters
• PLUS — 4 letters
• 4 symbols joining together in the middle
Results
PLUS+ launched as the premium layer of a platform that grew fast in its first year.
7M+ monthly users
Joyn passed 7 million monthly users by the end of 2019, weeks after PLUS+ launched.
10.4M app downloads
Within Joyn’s first year on the market.
60+ live channels in HD
PLUS+ launched with 60+ HD live channels, six extra pay-TV channels and the maxdome catalogue in one app.
Expectations met
Six months in, Joyn reported that PLUS+ subscriber numbers had fully met its expectations.