I recently noticed that a Planner mate on LinkedIn had updated their entry to list them working at: [agency’s new name] (or whatever it’s calling itself this week).
Yes, their agency had just rebranded. Again. I had a think back and between them the three agencies I’ve worked for managed eight full rebrands and another seven specialism brands between them in the space of twelve years. Honestly, you’d think they didn’t have any client work to be getting on with.
From my perspective, there seemed to be two main trains of thought behind all this rebranding – either a ‘new broom’ MBO or merger team understandably wanting to announce and brand their ownership and fresh approach – or a re-arranging-deckchairs-on-the-titanic type reaction to less than brilliant financial results.
Surely rebranding must have an impact on the agency’s visibility and reputation? Apart from virtually having the start from scratch again on the social media and PR front and New Business having to explain to everyone they call that they’re from agency-B-that-used-to-be-agency-A I’m sure that clients must be just as confused and sometimes perplexed as the rest of us are.
I’ve no idea what the situation at my mate’s agency is as they’re discretion personified. But I do know that these days I regard agency rebrands with a healthy degree of scepticism.
