Turning around a complex rebrand, fast

Colas

Colas UK specialised in delivering road infrastructure for 90 years. They're recently expanded their service remit and geographic footprint, integrating the strength, skills and experience of their international parent into their existing operations. Their brand identity, symbolised by its iconic ‘shark fin’ logo, no longer accurately represented the breadth of their offer.

Bell was appointed to deliver a brand solution for launch at the CIHT Annual Luncheon. The global Colas identity (a yellow ‘diamond’) would represent the UK corporate brand, and be used for their new divisions, whilst the ‘shark fin’ identity would be relegated to product sub-brands for their existing divisions. This presented a huge challenge –two identities with the wordmark “Colas” in the market concurrently. Focussing on the new identity, we developed a brand model, brand relationship modelling and messaging matrix, which informed all elements required for launch. We produced interim guidelines, literature, event collateral and two videos. The event was a huge success, and the full brand transition and activation programme is now underway.

“The team at Bell did a fantastic job of successfully delivering a complete re-brand and launch for Colas UK in the shortest time. From the very beginning they totally understood our needs, budget and deadlines and were able to deliver a brand message and brand launch that totally reflected our values and ethos on time and in budget.”

Lee Rushbrooke, CEO of Colas