ICYMI, Matchstic produces a podcast called A Change of Brand, sharing stories of rebrand glory, drama or disaster.
One privilege of doing interviews with creative leaders responsible for some of the world’s most influential rebrands is getting a behind-the-scenes look at the valuable lessons they learned in the process. What worked? What didn’t? Despite covering a wide range of industries, agencies, and challenges this season, a few themes began to emerge, revealing tensions and insights we can learn from.
Where to Draw the Line: Buddy-Buddy vs. Bossy-Bossy
Everyone (and I mean everyone) talks about the importance of collaboration to some degree. However, this season reveals a divergent path on the topic.
Most glowed about their partnerships. Kevin Byrd, Executive Creative Director at Instacart, and Daniel Renda, Creative Director at Wolff Olins, both developed close working relationships between their agency team and the in-house design studio. Using shared Figma files, the two groups played design tennis, literally co-creating alongside each other. Similarly, while at Bold Scandinavia, Harry Elonen worked so closely with Mojang Studios that he ended up joining the in-house team as Minecraft’s Senior Brand Manager to continue the work.
The real test of harmony between brand and agency is post-launch. With shared ownership, the spirit of the new brand identity stays intact and lives on even after the agency sunsets. If the agency does 100% of the work and lobs the finished design files over the fence, it’s not likely the new brand identity will stick around for very long.
But is extreme collaboration always the answer? Not necessarily.
Large, bureaucratic enterprises are allergic to risk. Creating anything courageous and forward-leaning feels unfamiliar and scary. Without strong leadership, they will consistently direct agencies toward mediocre, bland, and forgettable design work because it feels safe. After all, no one ever got fired for choosing blue as their brand color!
If you try the buddy-buddy approach in this type of climate, this too will be your fate. Unless you have a Rob Duncan.
As the Co-Founder and Creative Director at Mucho, Rob was skeptical about even winning the work for the Visa rebrand. Once he landed it, however, he faced a gauntlet of committees and internal complexities, all trying to stifle his team’s great work. Despite the resistance, he led the charge challenging feedback, requesting to speak with decision-makers one-on-one, and not taking “no” for an answer. His perseverance paid off and Visa launched a significant overhaul that pushed their business forward.
Trust the Process
The most groundbreaking work covered in this season all had one thing in common: trust. Bolt, Baskin-Robbins, Kraft, and many others – all fully trusted the process of the brand agency. Even when the blowback on the Bolt logo surfaced, their team wasn’t buying. They trusted Koto (their brand agency), knowing their process was thorough and the output was grounded in strategy.
A name change is one of the most extreme versions of change a brand can take. Between pleasing an existing audience and navigating the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, it’s a nearly impossible task. The team at Scott’s Cheap Flights had to trust that DesignStudio was going to land the plane on a new name that could scale with the business. After immersive research, workshops and some heated debate, Going was a “go.”
Simplify to Amplify
We also heard about several brands getting back to their roots – Kraft Mac & Cheese simplified their packaging and built off of their classic look while Baskin-Robbins went old school and embraced the heyday of ice cream.
Minecraft refreshed its brand identity based on this core idea: call out what is most recognizable and distinctive, then strip everything else away. If you’re considering a rebrand, step one should be to determine your brand’s distinctiveness in the market. Is it in a color? A symbol? A package size or shape? Or perhaps it's a sonic signature or a tagline. Just look for the baby before tossing the bathwater.
Tough Calls Make Tough Brands
Branding at this level isn’t for the faint of heart. Careers are made (and jobs are lost) as a result of the decisions made by brand leaders. During his time at Zapier, Michael Jeter had to make a “go or no go” call in the heat of a grueling brand refresh. He decided to pull the plug on months worth of work after a vaguely similar “Z” symbol made headlines on Russian tanks as they invaded Ukraine days before his rebrand was set to launch. It was a gutsy call that Jeter still stands by.
Similarly, the new Nokia brand mark almost died on the vine right before launch when the CEO received last-minute feedback that it read “No CIA.” However, that feedback never surfaced during hundreds of internal meetings and countless consumer studies. Still, that was a gutsy situation that Lee Coomber, of Lippincott, delicately maneuvered.
On the other hand, the City of Florence, AL fell into the epic fail category for going ahead with a rebrand that had one glaring mistake. I’ll let the logo above speak for itself.
To be fair, we did conclude that the City of Florence perhaps listened too much to its brand agency and didn’t make an effort to get any community feedback. Regardless of fault, it’s a rebrand scandal that will forever live in infamy (and maybe my favorite episode of all time).
Luckily, There is a Formula
Despite all of the harrowing challenges of rebranding, after 40 episodes of A Change of Brand (and my 20 years of service to the field), one thing remains true: there is a formula for success.
Follow a good process. Take the time to do audience research. Let that research form the ideal creative or brand strategy. Trust the experts. Collaborate and co-create so the vision sticks. Gather input and feedback, but not decisions. Oh, and don’t simply look to the CEO to choose their favorite color or logo design.
