Brand transformation | Oaklins
A global financial services firm needed a reboot…
My years-long partnership with Oaklins, a global M&A firm, has been one of the most rewarding of my career. We helped a diverse set of 60+ offices, each independently owned, see their shared brand as more than their logo on a pen, but as the core of who they are and how they differentiate themselves in the market. They entered what they called the “Oaklins 2.0 era” with a unified way to communicate to their range of target audiences, and a brand story and identity that everyone was proud of.
Challenge:
Develop a brand narrative to bring their value propositions to life and consistency to global communications
Update their brand identity; the identity had been recently developed but was seen by many as lacking a premium feel
Make it more enticing for member firms in the Oaklins network who had previously opted to keep their legacy brand name to transition to the Oaklins brand
Bring the updated brand to life across touch points and around the world
My role: Client lead, strategic lead, project lead, copy/messaging lead
Approach:
During 2018 and 2019, through weekly meetings with steering group to iterate every deliverable and manage feedback processes with a globally located team, we carried out the following:
BRAND:
An extensive market & audience insight phase which included around 100 interviews of employees, Oaklins clients, target clients and partners as well as workshops and observations at Oaklins’ global member conferences (carried out in Montreal, Vienna, London, Barcelona)
Developed a brand manifesto defining the Oaklins story, culture and key messages
Design thinking-based process to deliver creative brand communication concept to bring the brand to life globally
While the logo and colors needed to stay the same, we still crafted a drastically updated visual identity, with new typography and approach to imagery that supported all key messages, along with modern, digital-first color usage guidelines
Developed brand guidelines and defined the brand hierarchy for different types of Oaklins member firms
DIGITAL STRATEGY:
Developed an entirely new website to bring the brand to life, designed to provide a customized visitor experience based on region and to increase engagement
Trainings on digital ecosystem strategy, evolving their omni-channel UX and content strategy to drive engagement
ACTIVATION:
Audited marketing and sales assets to ensure they captured the new brand and messaging in the best way
Led workshops and trainings to coach hundreds of Oaklins members in bringing the brand to life successfully (see below)
Outcome:
The 60+ offices around the globe have found unity in their new brand and established a stronger culture and more cohesive communications. They’ve been more successful in engaging each segment, including entrepreneurs, private equity and corporate clients.
Some feel that coming up with a new brand position and strategy is the hard part. It’s definitely a challenge to get diverse stakeholder groups to agree on a direction. But I’ve seen that the hardest part in practice is actually bringing the strategy to life, across the org, effectively and cohesively. I train brand managers, marketers and executives on how to do that. They learn to treat their brand as a living thing that needs cultivating.
With Oaklins, as I have for many organizations, once we developed their new brand guidelines, I coached them on how to activate marketing content based on the new brand. I traveled to Montreal, Barcelona, Vienna and London carrying out presentations and workshops on how to cultivate their brand. I also led a series of digital workshops to help launch a brand manager program so that each office around the world had a champion helping roll out the new brand and content.
It takes practice and persistence to learn to interpret the brand across touch points and craft messaging appropriate to each audience, so much of this work was around driving a new mindset, and advocating for more resources and attention from the top towards brand and marketing. We talked about how a modern brand should not be static, especially when it is active in diverse global regions, so innovation of format, agility of channel and iteration based on measurement and monitoring are essential.
