Since its inception, Brennon D’Souza’s business has been touting an easier way to “call dibs” on upgrading to better seats at live events, just by sending a text. With a recent rebrand under their belt, the new and improved DIBZ sports a fresh look that reflects an easy-going culture with a winning service offering.
From the new name to the vibrant branding, the upgrade from Dibbzz to DIBZ just seems to fit. What was your motivation behind rebranding?
You could say we’ve actually been planning this from the beginning. I was brainstorming with my brother one day upon finalizing the direction of the business; we found that we could build a business using the theory behind why seats go unsold and that we could come up with a mechanism to address that without devaluing current pricing structures. So, when we were trying to think of a name that represents us, we really liked the idea of “calling dibs” on something. But after some Google searching, and discovering that many of the domains were already taken, we found that “Dibbzz” was available.
Even though we knew we wanted “D-I-B-Z”, at that moment, we said to ourselves, “You know what? We’ll take it. We’ll run with it, and see where this goes.”
As for the logo, Kauai, Hawaii is one of my favourite places to visit. I love surf culture, which really encourages you to just chill out. You might know the Shaka sign from the movies, but you actually see people use it there because that’s their life. That’s what they’re living, and I just gained a real understanding of what it is to chill out. To me, that representation of “cool” was something I wanted to portray because – well – upgrades are cool. And so that’s the reason I came up with it – I wanted to put something forward that people would understand. Now the funny part about it is that it actually has two meanings depending on who you are. Some people look at it as “hang loose”. And other people look at this hand gesture as the symbol to make a call. I hope it’ll evolve and when people see it, they’ll remember to themselves, “Oh yeah, call DIBZ.”
What kind of impact has this rebrand made, and what’s next?
I always had this idea that DIBZ doesn’t just mean to move a person’s seat at a show. We started to realize that our culture was about promoting upgrades in general and levelling up to a better experience than you anticipated. We wanted, through our branding, for our narrative to say “Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, this represents a better option.” We wanted it to be a name that people are going to use and hope that this enables a culture where people “call dibs” on whatever they want in life. Lo and behold, throughout the journey, we managed to acquire ‘DIBZ’. We wanted it, so we went and got it.
By having a brand so closely tied to this feeling, we’re looking to make DIBZ a household name. We want people to say, “Hey, are you going to a concert? Call DIBZ when you’re there.” And we want it to mean something! We already know people call dibs when they want to get shotgun in a seat. Let’s have it everywhere. And that’s the whole reason why we want to be in performing arts venues, in concert venues and in sporting venues. And, you know, things that we could eventually grow into, like, you know, calling dibs on your next airline seat or your travel seat or, or maybe a hotel upgrade. We are upgrades in general. But right now, this is the place to start.
There’s also something to be said about growing a tech business without the stress of tech on the user end. This is something that we hope can be used by everyday people, even the ones that aren’t “techie.” That’s really our brand. Upgrades are cool, but they should be stress-free. Tech is great, but there are so many barriers to entry. The way I look at it is high-tech, but low-tech – you don’t even need a smartphone to do it.
People who are upgrading are fans of an artist, or a sports team. They’re just trying to get closer. We shouldn’t complicate that.
