It’s time to shave the mustache.
On Tuesday, Lyft is ditching its familiar pink mustache logo in favor of a more streamlined look. And the ride-hailing company is equipping its drivers with a sleek, glowing gadget designed to help customers quickly spot the car they ordered.
The changes, which also include a new TV advertising blitz, add up to a major makeover that Lyft hopes will give its fleet of on-demand cars a more professional and universal veneer as it battles deep-pocketed rival Uber in the cut-throat ride-hailing business.
Lyft’s new gadget, dubbed Amp, will start to appear on drivers’ dashboard in certain cities in the coming weeks. The cucumber-sized device uses Bluetooth to synch with a driver’s phone and lights up in one of five colors to help passengers identify their vehicle.
Here’s how it works:
- Right now, Amp glows five different colors besides its default magenta: green, yellow, orange, purple, and light gray Drivers pair the device with their phones and are encouraged to install its magnetic base on the middle of the dashboard of their cars When passengers hail a ride in the app, Lyft will randomly generate a color for the Amp in the car. The app will show that color beaming off the animated car inside the app, as well as in the driver’s profile, so riders know what color to look for When the passenger gets in the car, a subtle screen on the back of the Amp will flash basic “hospitality” messages, like displaying a custom hello and goodbye to the passenger.
Goodbye, mustache
The device marks a big departure from the furry pink mustaches that adorned Lyft vehicles when the company started four years ago, and some of the company's top executives see it as a sign that the company - which was most recently valued around $5.5 billion - is growing and changing.
"We've seen the branding of the company go through an evolution from that first big, fun, furry mustache that I think really encapsulated the spirit of the brand and the sense of irreverence as the dynamic, playful, personality-driven company," Lyft's creative director, Jesse McMillin, told Business Insider. "Functionally, it was really hard to use. It was a big furry thing that could get weather-worn; it was hard to apply. It was something that we wanted to update and change."
The company rebranded in January 2015, swapping the original mustache - the Cuddlestache - for a new, high-tech version: the Glowstache.
But Lyft realized that the mustache logo itself no longer worked for the company.
"As fun and interesting as the mustache is, it's a harder thing to recognize. It takes more storytelling to bring it to life." McMillin said.
McMillin said that while the company isn't shedding its "whimsy," it wants to appeal to a broader audience.
"If you didn't relate to the mustache, if that wasn't something you were excited about, this kind of makes us more open to a wider audience," he said.
Lyft's new head of marketing, Melissa Waters, said ditching the company's logo was a "big step."
"Internally, we had that moment of 'We're retiring the mustache? It's such a big icon for our company,'" Waters told Business Insider. "But this for me really takes everything to an entirely new level - it's a multifaceted step. We not only are upping our branding in the car and our messaging in the car, we're making ride-sharing's first connected device."
Lyft's main rival, Uber, has already tested out an idea similar to what Amp is trying to do. Last year, Uber piloted customizable LED lights in its vehicles to help riders find their cars in busy areas. Called SPOT, the program was only available in Seattle and has not expanded to other markets.
Taking it national
Lyft will roll out the new devices over the next several months and will be in four markets by New Year's: New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. The devices should be in all of Lyft's markets - more than 200 in the US - by mid-2017. The company plans to continue updating the device, adding color and pattern options or customizing the Amps to display sports team colors for different cities.
Starting Tuesday, the company is also launching a national TV and digital ad campaign that satirizes a Lyft rival - it's anyone's guess which one - and touts Lyft's commitment to safety, in-app tipping, and more.
Waters calls the new campaign a pivot from tactics Lyft has tried in the past.
"We know that when you go from point A to point B, certain things are non-negotiable," Waters said. "But at Lyft...we feel like you have a choice in that moment to either go with a utility player who's really only going to talk to you about the transactional nature of getting you there, or with us."