In the first of our monthly client spotlight series, we caught up with Emily Underhill, Marketing Director at The Kite Factory on her experience of the media agency’s rebrand from MC&C, what she found challenging and what she enjoyed most throughout the Curious process.
What prompted your decision to rebrand?
There were multiple factors that led to our decision to rebrand but ultimately, we wanted to create a clean slate for the next leg of our growth journey. We’d spent a lot of time developing our offering and building a new senior leadership team to drive the business forward, but were struggling to agree and communicate what made us different.
We also received VC investment for the first time, which allowed us to invest in creating a modern brand that captured the agency’s vision, personality & passion that could confidently go up against our competitors.
What drove the desire to change your name as well as your identity?
Our old name (MC&C) stood for Mike Colling & Company, after our Founder. The agency was founded in 2001 and given its evolution, we felt that the name no longer represented or championed our people and the collaborative nature of our business.
MC&C also had a heritage in charity advertising – a specialism we are still proud to hold today – but we wanted to diversify our client base and knew a new name would give us the springboard to break out of that pigeonhole and have new conversations with different kinds of clients.
What was the most challenging aspect of managing a rebrand for you?
Managing multiple stakeholders and their opinions is always challenging. Curious did some brilliant investigative work to combat this by getting under the skin of the business and understanding what our agency stood for from those that know it best (staff, clients, partners etc), which left little room for debate and gave us a clear direction.
What did you find most enjoyable/surprising?
I really enjoyed the naming process as it really felt like our brand was coming to life. Curious came up with some really clever options that all struck a chord, and we were pleasantly surprised at how aligned we were as a team – the ultimate decision was unanimous!
I personally love the psychology behind branding so really enjoyed watching the process play out and learning the different considerations and how they all link together. On the surface, The Kite Factory seems a bit of a random name (which does a job in creating intrigue), but I love that it feels considered and links back to our story in a really smart way.
How did you communicate the changes to your employees and customers?
We knew how important it was to bring our staff on this journey with us and celebrate this new chapter with them and our existing clients. We timed the relaunch to coincide with our move to our beautiful new office which gave us a brilliant opportunity to bring the brand to life from day one.
A personal note from our CEO explaining the changes went to our clients and partners, and we sent a branded box of goodies to industry friends and journalists to spread the word. Staff received a welcome box on their new desk with more information on the new ‘us’ and our new surroundings, and we did a big reveal around our gorgeous neon TKF sign in our reception. Launch week culminated with a very boozy party at the office to celebrate with industry friends.
How do you think your new brand has impacted your business?
The rebrand has been absolutely fundamental in our growth. Curious helped us to discover and develop an authentic proposition that truly represented our agency, along with a stunning new name and visual identity that has created huge interest with new clients, recruits and industry peers. This gave us the fresh start we needed and it’s gone from strength to strength ever since.
You can find a case study of our work here.