Aphmau & MeeMeows
Build brand identities by defining goals and guidelines. Design the e-commerce website strengthening brand recognition and promoting future growth/ scalability.
My Role:
Project Lead // Senior Web Designer
Date:
Jan 2023 - Present
Project Includes:
Brand Building, Data Analysis, Web Design, Marketing Strategy
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Defining the Brand Identities
The start of the Aphmau and Meemeows brands & clarifying the mission and values of each
Section Includes: Background & Evaluation
Creating Guidelines
Restructure the e-commerce website to highlight each brand separately and promote future growth
Section Includes: Development & Data Analysis
Campaigns & Strategy
Manage product launches for all brands, along with transforming the website to act as a hub as well as an e-commerce platform
Section Includes: Storytelling & E-Commerce
Background
What is Aphmau's backstory, and what are MeeMeows?
Nearing 25 million Youtube subscribers, Aphmau has become a big name in the gaming community, known for creating role-play videos in Minecraft. Their fan base has been growing since 2012 when the first channel was formed. Now there are 3 related channels, each having millions of subscribers. Aphmau also has their own online store, and in 2019, they created a plush toy company called MeeMeows. Initially MeeMeows were heavily integrated with the Aphmau brand- as each continue to grow, both have acquired their own partnerships and opportunities in other industries.
Evaluation
What is the focus when creating these brand identities?
With Aphmau’s roots in YouTube, a community driven platform, inclusivity is essential to their mission & values. In gaining massive success with the channel, along with their sub-brands achieving awards for their own products, the main considerations are retaining their values as an inclusive platform while promoting the ability to scale each brand in the e-commerce space.
Mission & Identity
What ways do these brands crossover while maintaining their own unique identity as separate brands? How do we make these distinctions easily understandable to the public?
Community Building
How does the brand cater to long-term fans while welcoming newcomers? What power does storytelling have in expanding identity & community?
Business & Value Alignment
How does inclusivity translate into the e-commerce space? How does the brand uphold financial goals while staying true to their roots as a community-focused business? What practices are sustainable in balancing consumer and business needs?
Development
Creating Guidelines & Organizing Information
The first step was to clearly define each brand, emphasizing where they align and where they differ. The next step was to organize the information and gather current web data, turning insights into a plan involving restructuring website information and creating guidelines on digital campaigning moving forward.
The questions leading to the revamp included:
What is a MeeMeow? Who is Aphmau?
What is the difference between an Aphmau product and MeeMeow product?
What defines a MeeMeow versus a plush toy?
How do we use common e-commerce & SEO terms such as plush for both brands without causing confusion?
Data Analysis
Synthesizing Data to Restructure Information Architecture
Each brand was given it’s own page, showcasing their products, ongoing projects, and partnerships. In our website heat map analysis, data showed users typically scrolled only to the end of the first product gallery section. From that insight, it became important to make sure that all brands were displayed at the top of the homepage. The primary form of navigation from the home page showed to be our main banner slideshow versus the header and menu. This insight led to creating more banners that were page specific, redirecting users to the different brand and collection pages across the site, as well as showcasing the various products from each.
The e-commerce website information architecture was and continues to be reorganized to allow for more clarity in each brand’s individual mission, along with promoting an expansion of the digital product space for each.
Heat map insights informing brand and collection page considerations:
only 50% of users scrolled past 1/3 of the home page, typically ending at the 1st product gallery
37% of users entering the site use our banner slideshow for navigation to other areas of the site
only 8% of users click on our header & menu for navigation, with graphics and banners being the primary form of navigation
Storytelling
Fans know Aphmau's story, but this is a new plot point.
The YouTube series provides it’s own digital product- each video is carefully crafted from the initial scripts, set creation, character profile sheets to the final comments, edits, and renders.
One goal was to increase traffic to our website by encouraging users to not only use our website for purchases, but use it as a platform to get the latest news and updates around other projects we have going on, including the MeeMeow world expansion. We added YouTube video players to the website, encouraging fans to catch up on the latest episode and providing more context to new users, who may not know much about the brand.
There is a huge opportunity for MeeMeows to develop their own story in a similar way to the YouTube channel. We started by adding a collector’s guide to each of the MeeMeow collections- the larger project in the works is focused on giving each MeeMeow their own distinct personality and developing the story behind the MeeMeow world.
E-Commerce
New Product Launch Model Balancing Inclusion & Business Goals
Before 2026, our launches only included brand new products- this was great for anyone who was new, as they could join the hype with little previous context. Between 2024 and 2025, most product launches were centered around MeeMeows with new products coming out every month. Starting in 2026, we shifted to balancing product launches for each brand with new drops happening every week.
One of the initiatives we’ve taken in the last year has been the introduction of “The Vault” which is bringing back older products that were never restocked. Fans have praised this campaign, emphasizing they finally get the products they initially missed out on. It also minimizes the scarcity aspect around products never coming back, reducing the value of resold products.
Achievements from new product launch model:
decreased value of reseller accounts related to limited product quantities
positive fan commentary around listening to feedback and fulfilling requests of bringing back older styles