August 4, 2024
DS Smith
Website Case Study

How do we unite and excite our employees post M&A under one unified brand?

Challenge
London based DS Smith, one of the world’s largest publicly traded packaging companies with revenues topping £8 Billion, headquartered in London, came to Brandigo to help define their brand’s core value proposition, purpose, and visual representation. This had particularly become a challenge as much of DS Smith’s growth had come from acquisitions around the globe so many brand silos, differing company cultures and brand value propositions existed. Brandigo was charged with creating a new purpose, essence, and positioning that could unify the company under one singularly focused brand. 


Solutions
Following the format of 1) Who does the brand need to convince? 2) What do they currently think, feel and do? 3) What do we need then to think, feel, and do? 4) What moves them, what are the points of differentiation we can keep returning to and build upon? And 5) How can we get those points of difference out into real-world actions and behaviors?

We started with understanding that much of the challenge was about the internal culture and employee brand. With that in mind, we interviewed dozens of employees across the different global locations, particularly those that had more recently been acquired by DS Smith and rebranded. 

From this, we were able to find the common, emotional thread that tied it all together, and that was wanting and needing to be not only the world’s top packaging company, but also the most environmentally forward brand in the space.

A new brand purpose reflecting this was created as Redefining Packaging for a Changing World and crafted to a new brand essence and tagline: The Power of Less.

Brandigo then create a new visual way to express this positioning, creating a brand icon called the D Window. The D Window is expressed as seeing the what’s possible, what’s new, what can change the world by looking through the window. We used the existing logomark to create this standard that became the focal part of the new brand.

To ensure that the new brand essence, positioning and visual representation was used consistently by dozens of marketing teams across the globe, Brandigo created extensive Brand Guidelines that addressed every possible scenario, from marketing asset design templates, fleet signage, in-airport advertising, social, video, pitch decks to all things digital, the new Guidelines covered 215 pages.

To launch the new brand strategy, Brandigo helped create a global employee event across dozens of offices and facilities in 9 countries and languages, including engagement events, contests, entertainment, training events and employee swag.

10 Brand Strategy Metrics CMOs Should Track

By Matt Bowen • March 21, 2025
10 Brand Strategy Metrics CMOs Should Track

AI is a Valuable Tool. But It Shouldn't Be Your Head of Brand Strategy.

By Chris Langathianos • March 13, 2025
AI is a Valuable Tool.  But It Shouldn't Be Your Head of Brand Strategy.
Share by: