Transform Awards Europe 2024 was the biggest and best to date. The event celebrates excellence in rebranding, repositioning and brand development, and saw agencies from London to Berlin entering more incredible work than ever before.
Firms like Pentagram, Interbrand and Dragon Rouge submitted brand projects for Bugatti, TikTok, Aston Villa, Kraft Heinz, and Transport for London.
Despite the intense competition, RBL Brand Agency came away with “the most prestigious accolade” and highly coveted award of the night – The Grand Prix – recognising excellence in strategy and creativity for our brand work with ZSL.
Along with the top award, we also received 3 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze awards for our work with ZSL, Health Equals, Foundations, and OCI Global.
Full list of awards won:
- Grand Prix – Best in branding excellence for ZSL
- Gold – Best strategic or creative development of a new brand for Health Equals
- Gold – Best naming strategy (new name) for Health Equals
- Gold – Best brand development project to reflect a change of mission, values or positioning (corporate) for ZSL
- Silver – Best visual identity by a charity, NGO or NFP for ZSL
- Silver – Best visual identity from the public sector for Foundations
- Bronze – Best corporate rebrand following a merger or acquisition for Foundations
- Bronze – Best visual identity from the industrial, basic materials, mining and extractives sector for OCI Global
Read more about the work, the judge’s comments, and the teams involved below.
Zoological Society of London
- Grand Prix – Best in Brand Excellence
- Gold - Best brand development project to reflect a change of mission, values or positioning (corporate)
- Silver - Best visual identity by a charity, NGO or NFP
We partnered with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to unite the organisation together behind a shared and powerful purpose and identity that would help them step out of the shadows and take their rightful place on the world stage.
For such a global player, known within the sector as a leader in its field, their brand wasn’t able to match and support the impact of their work. Instead, it had become unbalanced and fragmented, leaving external audiences unsure of what ZSL really stood for beyond zoos, and internal stakeholders at odds with the brand.
To solve this challenge, we reconnected the organisation with its proud, shared heritage, using elements from past identities but injecting them with fresh energy to create a new logo as iconic as ZSL’s past and as bold as their future ambitions.
This new logo takes you across the sky, through the canopy, over the ground and into the ocean. Every element of the ecosystem comes together, just as ZSL does, to drive forward on a journey of recovery.
The new ZSL identity was just the start. London Zoo, Whipsnade Zoo, the Institute of Zoology, conservation programmes, high-level partnerships and publications all needed updating to work within the new brand ecosystem.
A set destination, a shared vehicle, but different ways to get there – brand narrative, graphic system, colour palette and tone of voice all work to this principle. One font that can be soft and inviting, or precise and hard-hitting; a personality full of warmth, care and passion. And a hierarchy that sets out ZSL’s role clearly across every touchpoint, building stronger relationships between every facet of the brand.
The new brand is designed to support public engagement, campaigning and conservation communications. Awareness of ZSL’s conservation work has increased by 38% and 100% of audiences tested were more likely to support the organisation after hearing its brand narrative. Judges called it “fantastic work,” with a “clear challenge and great results.” One added, “I love everything about it. This is an intelligent rebranding of a portfolio brand.”
Penny Hamilton, Head of Marketing at ZSL said:
“At ZSL our unique insight and evidence-based approach underpins everything we do, and RBL have helped us bring the same insight and innovation to our brand. As the crisis facing our natural world becomes more urgent, and the challenges more complex, it will take all of us working together to solve them. Our new identity, brand and storytelling approach will help us to bring people closer to nature and inspire a life-long love of wildlife in the conservationists of tomorrow.”
Thanks to:
RBL Brand Agency Team: Adam Concar, Rhiannon Lowe, Andy Mathias, Mattie Lynch, Daniel Georgiev, Daniel Wickes, Helena Andrews, Drew Gaught, Jack Fitzgerald, Karen Newbold
ZSL Team: Penny Hamilton, Nigel Campbell, James Wren, Emma Edwards
Health Equals
- Gold - Best strategic or creative development of a new brand
- Gold - Best naming strategy (new name)
To target health inequality across the UK, a coalition of 30 organisations united to form the Collaboration for Health & Wellbeing – the UK’s first-ever campaigning initiative uniquely focused on the wider building blocks of health.
RBL was engaged to develop a new brand strategy, name, and visual and verbal identity that would completely change the way the UK thinks about health, inspiring a cross sector movement that would drive policy change and galvanise public action.
We knew that asking people to look at health differently and stand up for change, would require a bold, transformative and disruptive approach.
Stripping the issue back to these simplest, most emotive elements was the key to unlocking a compelling way forward. In real and simple terms, your health can impact on your opportunities in life, and your chance to live a happy life. The concept of good health equalling better opportunities, better chances, better lives led to the creation of Health Equals. The name not only reflects the brand’s purpose and acts as a campaign platform but inspires the visual identity as well. According to the Transform Awards, “Judges thought the social impact brand’s name was well chosen, straightforward and exciting.”
Research showed that 90% of policymakers felt they could engage fully with this campaign brand. The disruptive style, colour, copy, and strategy contribute to a memorable, impactful launch. One judge said, “This is a strong identity that has been carefully considered to work across the varying target audiences.
Paul McDonald, Chief Campaigns Officer at Health Equals said:
“We are very pleased to hear that our collaboration with RBL has been recognised in these awards chosen by industry experts. As a coalition of organisations from different sectors, including employment, housing, education and the environment, all of whom want to make a positive difference in society’s health and well-being collaboratively, our brand is vital in helping us shift the public narrative on health inequalities and is something we are very proud of.”
Thanks to:
RBL Brand Agency Team: Rhiannon Lowe, Andy Mathias, Adam Concar, Mattie Lynch, Jack Fitzgerald, Clare Flude, Helena Andrews, Drew Gaught, Daniel Georgiev, Dan Wickes
Health Equals Team: Nicole Walsh, Maeve Gordon, Cathy Irving, Carrie Hume,
Foundations
- Silver - Best visual identity from the public sector
- Bronze - Best corporate rebrand following a merger or acquisition
The What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care and the Early Intervention Foundation was formed from the merger of two organisations with the aim of achieving greater impact for children.
This newly formed team turned to rbl for help to create a more powerful brand and name that could turn evidence into influence and influence into action. By focusing on the importance of foundational relationships in a child’s life we shaped a brand that not only reflected a more rational and pragmatic approach but had a real-life emotional resonance too.
Foundations was chosen as the name to positively drive the united organisation forward, and this carries through into the wider brand identity using a structured visual language, strong colour palette and contrasting typefaces. Imagery and illustration focus on the relationships themselves rather than the subjects of those relationships. The logo mark signifies the positive ripple effect that robust evidence can have on influencing policy and practice change. The verbal identity strikes a balance between insightful gravitas and passionate empathy, where every word matters.
Together these elements form a brand system that enables the organisation to deliver against its vision that vulnerable children should have the foundational relationships they need to thrive in life. Officials from the Transform Awards noted that “The brand is both warm and authoritative, lending a gentle hand in guidance through its clear communications and emotive imagery.”
The new brand supported a 23.5% conversion rate on web traffic during the launch period.
Dr Jo Casebourne, CEO of Foundations, said:
“RBL Brand Agency has played a pivotal role in clearly positioning our newly merged organisation, pulling out all the stops to create a brand that truly unites us together rapidly and effectively.
They helped us to shape a powerful brand story, creating a platform that will enable us to make the most of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape children’s social care for the better and place actionable evidence at the heart of the support given to vulnerable children and families.”
Thanks to:
RBL Brand Agency Team: Adam Concar, Rhiannon Lowe, Louise Mortimer, Jack Fitzgerald, Andrew Milton, Helena Andrews, Andy Mathias, Rachid Taibi, Abigail Dobbyn, Dan Wickes
Foundations Team: Cathy Irving, Jo Casebourne, Josh MacAlister, Francesca Morosini
OCI Global
- Bronze - Best visual identity from the industrial, basic materials, mining and extractives sector
In our rapidly growing world, food and energy supplies are under intense threat. As the world’s largest producer of green methanol and a leader in low carbon solutions, OCI is leading the way in fuelling and feeding the world sustainably, supporting energy intensive industries to decarbonise making transport cleaner, harvests better and products greener.
Despite being at forefront of the energy revolution, the brand was a sleeping giant.
We partnered with them to define a game-changing brand narrative, identity and architecture transforming a disparate group of business units orbiting each other into a unified network with a new stronger ‘OCI Global’ brand at the core. A brand that would provide the cut-through and impact they needed, unlocking more opportunities to influence, build partnerships and add value.
The identity was designed to show acceleration, progress and positive change, demonstrating agility, the dynamic skills and expertise of the team, and the confidence of a company driving change.
New photography and videography heroed the unique, status-quo-smashing teams in real-world scenarios, demonstrating how people were driving rapid progress in a traditional, change-resistant sector. Officials from the Transform Awards observed, “The new logo brings in a sense of momentum and future-driven focus.”
Gillian Daines, Global Head of Corporate Communications, at OCI Global said:
“The introduction of our employees around the world into our visual brand was a game-changer for our communications as a whole. As a producer of gas-based chemicals, it’s hard to show our product in action! But like any company, our people are what makes us tick and happily so many colleagues were proud to be a face of OCI Global.
Showing our people in their real work settings has enabled us to communicate more effectively about careers and introduce our facilities to a wider audience in a compelling way.”
Thanks to:
RBL Brand Agency Team: Rhiannon Lowe, Adam Concar, Karen Newbold, Andy Mathias, Louise Mortimer, Rebecca Battman, Daniel Georgiev, Drew Gaught, Helena Andrews, Dan Wickes, Rachid Taibi, Mattie Lynch, Jack Fitzgerald, Abigail Dobbyn, Pete Merrills
OCI Global Team: Gillian Daines, Erika Wakid, Hannah Day
Looking to 2025
To conclude, thank you.
Thank you to the judges who awarded the work. Thank you to our clients who commissioned the work and partnered with us to make it happen. And thank you to the RBL team for your unstoppable teamwork, talent, and hard work.
Between now and the next Transform Awards we will continue to shape brands that mean more and achieve more. Partnering with leading organisations to create work that drives sustainable growth, brings people together, and powers progress.
If you are interested in working together, please get in touch with our Growth Director Karen Newbold on (+44) 1926 678368 or email karen@rblteam.com.
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