Since the reveal of our new brand, we’ve received fantastic feedback from employees and clients. Alongside our platform launch last month, we refreshed our image to bring us into the new modern tech market.
The rule for rebrands is there must be a reason behind your decision. After ten years of Venn and a new offering on the horizon, we seized the opportunity to re-evaluate and prepare for the future. To do this, we took it back to basics and gave the Venn brand some TLC.
If you’re going to do a brand refresh, you’re doing it to solve a problem. On average, organisations update their brand identities every 7 -10 years, motivated by mergers, new markets, or reputation. Your brand is a physical asset that has a position in the market, so naturally, the word ‘rebrand’ can be a scary one.
As a marketing agency that has taken on our fair share of client rebrands, we were keen to take on this challenge and brave enough to do it in a big way.
Our old brand was no longer showing who Venn was. With a platform and product launch on the horizon, we took this opportunity to refresh our image, reflecting our evolution to become a tech and service business.
We’ll be the first to say that there was a misalignment between what customers thought of us and what we actually were. After 11 years, our message in our branding had become diluted. So when we asked what Venn did, people were struggling to answer both internally and externally. This was when we knew something needed to change.
“The purpose of the rebrand was to revitalise Venn, show off the new offering and the unity of the new product.” – Brian Whigham, Managing Director.
When you launch a new product, you want everything to feel united, and that was the purpose; to show who we are, our goals and what the next ten years will look like.
It’s in Venn’s nature to evolve. Starting life as a marketing agency, we’re now becoming a product-led service business powered by own our tech platform.
We wanted to lead by example and show businesses not to be afraid of change.
At the core of our business now is our product, platform, performance and projects. All of these pillars needed to be reflected in our brand as core elements of what we offer.
To truly understand the evolution of Venn, we took a deep dive into the archives to understand who Venn was and who we are now.
“For Venn to take the leap and change their brand in order to fit in with a new market is really brave. The reception to the change has been great, and it was important to us to be seen as a brave modern brand not afraid to adapt.” – Maegan Sullivan, Marketing Manager.
The new brand colours came from the need to express the different elements that make up Venn. We needed something that could sit comfortably alongside modern tech brands, and the old logo no longer had the weighting.
Reflective of the tech sector, we took a simplistic, clean approach. We realised that the V in Venn had to represent more. It had to represent Vennture, our products and our service. This is why the ability to have it as a glorified favicon was crucial.
Heading into 2022, we’ve got a revolutionary new platform that needs to be showcased equally among the other arms of our business.
Overall, we needed a logo that displayed our breadth of understanding, one that could compete in a modern market. Now we have a vibrant logo that remains subtle, reflecting the personalities within Venn.
Our approach started with the realisation that the new product was coming, and it didn’t fit within the existing brand.
During the research phase, our brand strategist took a look at the progression of Venn. By identifying who we were and why that was relevant then, we could see who we are now. What can we strip away, what do we need to add and what can remain constant?
“For me, the ground-breaking moment was when we started looking at the brand archetypes. Looking at who Venn actually was. It was a question I had thought about many times but never dared to go into.” – Rhiannon Barnes-Powell, Brand Strategist
Venn was identified as the rebel/outlaw. This was the first time we had dealt with a rebel, having never encountered one in our customer base before.
The driving force behind Venn has always been to disrupt and create revolutionary solutions to business challenges. Our attitude and rebel culture leads to our out of the box thinking. Yes, we’ve grown up, but the desire to be creative and unique is still our core. By identifying Venn as the rebel/ outlaw, we were able to see that whilst our core values had remained the same; we had matured.
“People come to Venn because they want a solution that isn’t standard. They want something that’s been thought about creatively with business commercial thinking behind it. “ – Leah Tillyer, Operations Director.
Learn more about our approach to branding in our dedicated blog.
“Looking at Venn as an employer brand. It’s nice to have this refresh. It feels good to be modern and have a unified offering. Previously there was a divide between the product and the platform, but we’re now showcasing the elements of the wider company. For me it’s unification and to feel part of the team whereas before we weren’t showing all of what we do.
People are usually very much afraid to change their brand so the reaction from the Venn team was unusual for me but fantastic. Venn is confident in that space, and that’s down to the belief of the whole team.” – Rhiannon Barnes-Powell, Brand Strategist.
“When you do a brand refresh it restores faith, both internally and externally, it revitalises not just the brand but the essence within the company. Everyone has been working so hard this past year so it’s a proud moment when you can see the physical results for the first time.” – Maegan Sullivan, Marketing Manager
“It's exciting to be part of a company that is trying to position itself in a league of its own and changing to a more product-based agency. The rebrand indicates that Venn is looking to evolve and part of that journey is looking inside the company and reviewing internal processes making general day-to-day optimised for our clients.” – Corinne Hooley, Digital Delivery
“It’s great to see how Venn is evolving and I’m excited to be a part of this progression going forward.” – Ben Thomas, Digital Support
Welcome to the new Venn! We’re incredibly lucky to have talented specialists in-house that can bring brands to life. If you’d like to learn more about how we can support your brand and business growth, simply get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to tell you more about our services. Whether you’re looking for a light touch refresh or a full rebrand project, we would love to hear from you.
