Debate
We’ve had a rebrand. Who cares?
And frankly, why should you?
Let’s face it, no consumer is waking up in the middle of the night sweating about the shoddy spacing on their favourite brand’s wordmark or demanding a more conversational tone of voice for their oat milk brand of choice.
Besides, change is scary. Familiarity is comfort. And comfort is lovely. Don’t mess with comfort.
So why do it?
A business tends to be the natural byproduct of the enthusiastically misguided formative years of any startup. After three and a bit years, a business peered back at us that we sort of recognised, kinda liked, but clearly needed its face washing, a hearty breakfast and a few home truths.
2017 was certainly not 2020. ‘Fake news’ was actually fake news. Corona’s remedy was a slice of lime. And most notably for us, the conversation around Brexit, so intrinsically linked to our name and origins, was number one on the news agenda. Whilst that shared feeling of a vote representing something wholly averse to our values remained, its relevancy had clearly evolved.
What’s more, the work we did and how we did it were now intrinsically different. So the question we posed to ourselves was the same one we ask of all our clients.
Why do we matter today?
There were two routes to that answer. Recruit an external agency offering an objective opinion that would get us to the finish line quickly and bang on budget. Or bring it in-house, manage it between client projects and accept an elongated process as a result. The win? A far greater chance of landing something more reflective of the people who created it.
What followed was an exhausting, yet profoundly rewarding journey.
A stretch of time that saw the agency fundamentally change both structurally and culturally as we battled through the common complexities of Covid, cash flow and growth. Forty Eight Point One was now blessed with a bigger team, a broader range of skillsets and a far more powerful mix of voices.
A healthy chunk of time was spent talking; reminding ourselves what truly brought us all together in the first place, what had changed and why that might matter to somebody, somewhere today. But also confronting the tough questions. Some difficult to stomach. Each one critical to resolve. And all voiced by a team confident and impassioned enough to demand those answers of us.
And so here we are.
A place not one of us could have envisaged when the decision for change was made. A rebirth over a rebrand, guided by an ethos that communicates exactly what our team represents on a daily basis.
‘A creative agency for people willing to question everything’ celebrates what we believe a safe, inspiring, creative space should be; an environment that empowers everybody to challenge convention and debate freely in the pursuit of something more unique, more considered and above all more effective.
And what’s more important than that?
Well to those we partner with, we believe it really matters.
Because it has redefined the process we want both our team and clients to experience – a highly collaborative, long-term partnership bristling with the prospect of change, strengthened by honest dialogue and inspired by open conversation.
It informs our internal decisions – the people we look to hire, the content we wish to produce and the events we plan to run.
But perhaps most pertinently for our clients, it directly impacts the work that we are paid to deliver. An end product that produces results and feels as much their creation as it does ours.
