Vietnamese teen milk brand Malto reimagined by M – N Associates

The Ho Chi Minh-based branding and creative design agency was called on by Malto’s mother brand, LOF, to craft a new design which fits with its overarching strategy, ‘Choosing your happiness.’ M – N Associates was responsible for evolving the role of its brand characters, along with redesigning the brand’s logo, colour palette, typography, brand voice and packaging.

M – N Associates began the project by deciding to realign the brand closer to contemporary Asian teen culture in a manner which could showcase a cute and relatable aura. The hope is that this can combat against a trend of ‘teen leader’ and ‘healthy teen’ themes within the saturated teen milk market. Instead, the revised brand hopes to chime more with the phrase ‘happy teen choice’.

A crucial step to connecting with today’s Vietnamese youth was reassessing the role of Malto’s Gang characters (Leo, Tony, Ace, Mie and Ozzy) from mere emoticons to cultural icons. To achieve this feat, the characters no longer exist solely on packaging, but will be active in merchandising, animations and collaborations in the future.

Elsewhere, the logotype has been adapted in order to represent growth and the aspiration to ‘fly high’. This natural and friendly style takes the form of distinct visual flair and the use of curvy forms; design elements which hope to draw attention to the packaging. This is paired with the inception of a bold colour palette which features vibrant yellow as the malt colour.

M – N Associates also brought in MN Malty as a custom font which it hopes will visually represent that theme of ‘growth’, while NaN Hyena and LeOsler aim to complement the primary font by adding sophistication.

Finally, Malto’s new tone of voice incorporates the latest linguistic trends and wordplay by injecting humour. Its aim, as is with the rest of the new brand, is to be as relatable as possible for today’s youth in the region.  

Malto comments, “It’s not just teen choice for consumer, the Malto Gang characters made it to be new GenZ favourites and become our mascot spirits for the whole organisation. They’re loveable and cute.”