Examples of rebranding

Rebrands and makeovers can bring a fresh new life to brands, reposition them for a new generation, or update them along with changing times, but you might not need to scrap everything that’s gone before. Sometimes it’s more powerful to seek out what components still ring true, and what’s still relevant today. 

Some of our New Blood briefs will ask you to rethink, reimage and reinvent. Here, we’ve rounded up some examples of brands that have evolved by taking stock of what worked with their audience and expanding on it, paying homage to their origins, or taking the brand in a completely new direction.

A couple of years ago if you were asked to think of drink brands with attitude, Oasis probably wouldn’t have registered on your radar. Today, it’s a very different story. An irreverent copy-lead campaign has been creating a buzz about the flavoured water over the last year. Created by The Corner, the campaign breaks the fourth wall and has allowed Oasis to break through the noise in the drinks category. (Plus it features one very subversive ad most agencies can empathise with.) 

When asked to create a new brand identity for Camden Market, Ragged Edge decided not to reinvent the wheel. Instead, they looked at what had made it such an icon and honour those roots. Their ‘Unfollow Convention’ identity was centred on two bespoke typefaces, based on the Camden Lock sign. Without a rigid logo or blanket brand, visitors were invited to embrace the market's tenacious commitment to originality.

Credits: Camden Market
Awards: Wood Pencil, Branding 2017
Agency: Ragged Edge Design

This car brand might be known for its quirky ads and Czech charm now, but once they were the butt of cruel jokes. With the help of advertising and marketing agency Fallon London, they performed a three-point turn on that negativity to become one of the most talked about car brands of the day. How? They embraced the joke, lodged their tongues firmly in their cheeks, and changed the punch line.

Credits: Skoda – Motorshow
Awards: Wood Pencil, TV & Cinema Advertising 2001
Agency: Fallon London

In a world of fast-evolving tech and the feed frenzy, nostalgia has become the dish of the day. Whether consumers were privy to the original or not, everyone from Netflix to Urban Outfitters is serving up the throwback trend. But Polaroid need not pay homage. They’re a true original, and amongst the ‘vintage inspired’ they’re firmly holding on to their origins and stepping back in as the genuine article.

Sometimes you just need to throw out the rule book and take a brand in a completely new direction, like these D&AD Yellow Pencil New Blood winners did. The National Trust are a well established institution, but playing it safe wasn’t going to connect them with a younger audience. To make Millennials see the National Trust in a different way, these two budding creatives got them to act in a different way. The result is hard to ignore.

Credits: National Trust - Reconnect our relationship with nature and beauty
Awards: Yellow Pencil, D&AD New Blood Awards 2014
Students: Robert Sewell, Vytautas Busma at University of Gloucestershire
​Tutor: John Brewer

Take a look at more tips and inspiration to help you kick start your creative career or with your New Blood entry.