Name Awards

Zynga sings a different tune

The big branding agencies usually say that unless a brand is really broken, don’t change it. In fact, many brands have become better known after a disaster, provided that the situation was properly handled by management. To which I might add, or the problem was real but long ago, and now we can sweep it under the carpet.

Zynga made a lot of its money originally by being the US king of spam. Today they are perhaps still not that well known, but their games are all the best sellers on Facebook. Games like FarmVille, FishVille, PetVille, Mafia Wars, etc.

But how did they get their own interesting name  – that is both short and musical, as well as strong and dynamic? As you may have guessed, it is from the name of the owner’s dog.. hence the logo.

And, according to their website, the dog’s real name was Zinga, which is Swahili for Princess. How come so many people use Swahili as the excuse for any strange African word? They should be more careful. The AfricanLanguages.com online dictionary gives these results for Zinga:

zinga verb

1 roam, wander, rove

2 turn the other way

3 to prostitute

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