An office rebrand exercise for BetVictor’s sister company Mayfly Entertainment. Mayfly’s staff and customers are mostly from China and Malaysia, and the business is based in the Isle of Man. BetVictor’s staff are predominantly European, with the company HQ in Gibraltar.

As the basis for the rebrand we wanted to use the historical Silk Road trading route as our inspiration, connecting it with the digital Silk Road of today which, like Mayfly and BetVictor, operates between Asia and Europe.

I created a backstory for the Mayfly brand by crafting a fictional narrative of an ancient sailing ship named Mayfly.

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The Story of the Mayfly...

If Mayflys are famous for anything, it’s their incredibly short lifespan. They don’t survive very long at all, sometimes for as little as five minutes. Fragile, delicate and quick to die – do we really want to hang our brand name on such a vulnerable creature? Perhaps not.

Luckily for us, our research of the maritime Silk Road uncovered a remarkable coincidence which we can build upon to keep the Mayfly name but use it in a bold, positive and adventurous way.

Believe it or not, there was actually a ship named Mayfly which used to transport goods all around the world, including along the Silk Road maritime trading route.

William Weston was a descendent of Thomas Weston of the London Merchant Adventurers. Thomas recruited many of the passengers who sailed aboard the more famous vessel Mayflower, which transported the first English pilgrims to the New World in 1620. William Weston was captain and owner of Mayfly and, over 200 years later, named his new ship in tribute to his ancestor Thomas.

Mayflower might be better known to history, but the story of Mayfly is even more exciting, and epitomises many of the principles and values we want our business to represent.

William Weston was an experienced seaman who traded extensively in Europe before assembling a daring international crew for his first run at the Silk Road in 1845. Leaving London in May of that year and making it round the treacherous, frequently deadly Cape of Good Hope, Mayfly found safe harbour in the Chinese port of Guangzhou. There, she loaded up on textiles before heading back through the Strait of Malacca on route to India.

Picking up spices in India, Mayfly then sailed across the Arabian Sea and back around the Cape on the way home to London – but not without first heading through the Strait of Gibraltar for another stop at Genoa. 

We know that Mayfly did eventually make it to Liverpool, but unfortunately we couldn’t find any record of her trading out of the Isle of Man. But there’s a good reason for that - her story is completely made up. We invented her!

But we know that ships like her most certainly did exist. And with a bit of imagination, we can picture our two businesses as being 21st century versions of our valiant ship Mayfly - fearless in the face of adversity and rising to every challenge.

Maritime trade was hazardous and fraught with danger, from violent storms, sickness onboard and brutal pirates. Operating in Asia and at the mercy of unpredictable results and events beyond our control, we must also be brave, smart, and work as a team to succeed.