Anonymized Client Engineering a Unified Future: A Global Enterprise’s Journey to a Cohesive Brand

Client Profile (Anonymized)

Industry: Insurance
Employees: 5500
Client Base: 1/4 of all Fortune 500 companies are policyholders
Revenue: $7.3 billion (2023)

This global mutual insurance company has a 200-year legacy and serves a quarter of the Fortune 500, known for its unique engineering-first approach to managing property risk.

Despite its scale and expertise, the company had maintained a low public profile. Its brand was fragmented across regions, departments, and business units, each using different visual identities, messaging, and naming systems. 

This lack of consistency diluted the brand’s value, limited its recognition, and hindered its ability to grow and compete globally.

Recognizing the need for change, the leadership team embarked on one of the most ambitious and confidential brand transformations in recent history. 

Their goal was to evolve from a decentralized structure of sub-brands into a unified, modern master brand, without compromising the equity and trust built over two centuries.

The leadership team recognized that to grow, attract talent, and maintain relevance on the global stage, they needed to shift from a decentralized structure of sub-brands to a unified, future-ready master brand. The result: a modernized brand built for clarity, credibility, and global visibility.

Working toward a centralized brand framework

Rebranding a global enterprise is always complex. For this organization, it involved more than just a logo or website redesign, it meant transitioning an entire decentralized ecosystem into a cohesive brand experience.

Beyond the expected branded assets like signage, workwear, and ID badges, the rebrand required updating a vast array of operationally critical and highly regulated materials. These included insurance policies, legal and claims forms, engineering templates, training videos, branded vehicles, product portals, and more. In total, more than 16,000 individual items were identified that needed to be converted.

Compounding the challenge was the fact that these assets were scattered across business units and geographies, none of which had been centrally tracked or governed prior to the rebrand. Because the initiative needed to remain confidential until launch, internal teams had to work without broad staff awareness, early buy-in, or readiness planning.

To help navigate these complexities, this organization brought in BrandActive to support the planning, orchestration, and operational execution of the rebrand. With the stakes high and the timeline tight, collaboration and precision would be critical to success.

How they made it happen

1. Discovery: uncovering and prioritizing assets

The first hurdle was understanding the true scale of the challenge. BrandActive began with a comprehensive discovery process—interviewing stakeholders, analyzing internal systems, and conducting both physical and digital audits. This surfaced over 16,000 branded touchpoints across the organization’s global operations, including many that were unexpected or technically complex.

To avoid overwhelming internal resources, BrandActive helped the organization develop a phased implementation roadmap:

• 400+ high-visibility assets were prioritized for rebranding by launch day
• 4,000+ critical assets were queued for immediate post-launch conversion
• Remaining long-tail assets were scheduled for staged updates over time
  

This approach brought structure and focus to the project, ensuring a powerful global brand reveal without exhausting internal capacity.

2. Execution: Premium 3D signage 

The organization wanted its new identity to make a bold and immediate statement, especially at physical office locations. Signage became a central piece of the rebrand rollout strategy.

Working with two global signage vendors, the organization and BrandActive led a detailed prototyping process that tested 12 logo variations across fabrication styles, materials, and illumination techniques. The final selection reflected a premium, modern brand identity designed for consistency and impact across international markets.

Results:

• Signage installed at 50+ offices in under five months
• Delivered 20% under budget
• Completed on time for Day 1 launch

The cohesive signage system was the first visible signal of transformation—delivering an immediate sense of change to employees, clients, and visitors alike.

3. Accelerated conversion & operational efficiency

Early in the process, the internal team of eight designers was converting branded assets at a rate of about 100 per month. That pace was too slow to keep up with the demands of the rebrand. Working closely together, the organization and BrandActive refined workflows and introduced process improvements that increased speed and efficiency without overwhelming internal teams.

Key improvements included:

• Real-time refinement of brand guidelines and templates
• Clearer asset ownership and routing
• Streamlined approvals and QA protocols

Results:

• 5x increase in global asset conversion throughput
• 2x design output using less than half the original team
  

These changes not only accelerated execution but created a scalable brand operations model the organization could rely on long-term.

4. Shift in Master Brand Strategy

Beyond the physical transformation, the rebrand represented a cultural and operational shift. The company moved from a structure built around independent sub-brands to a unified, centralized master brand.

This transition required new messaging, tools, and ways of working. For many teams, it also meant adapting to a rebrand they had only learned about on launch day.

To support internal adoption, BrandActive partnered with the organization to lead structured change management efforts:

• Stakeholder alignment sessions
• Team-specific onboarding and training
• Practical tools and templates for day-to-day brand implementation
  

This helped turn initial resistance into alignment, building momentum for the new brand from within.

A bold new chapter

In the end, the organization emerged with a sleek, modern brand that reflects its scale, expertise, and global ambition. The rebrand delivered not only a new visual identity, but a new way of working: one built on clarity, consistency, and confidence.

According to the VP of Brand, “BrandActive was the best mixture of friendly, professional and supportive that I have known from a partner. If I could keep the whole team on retainer for the rest of my life, I would.”

Have questions? Reach out to Rich Zhang at r.zhang@brandactive.com

Respecting client privacy

Some of our most transformative work is featured anonymously, not because it’s confidential, but because our clients, often leaders in their industries, are more comfortable sharing their journey without the spotlight. By respecting this preference, we’re able to highlight real impact and measurable results while honoring the trust that fuels our most effective partnerships.