Evolving the Lexington brand

As part of a wider contract, which involved delivering multi-channel marketing activity, Freshwater worked with Lexington to evolve the firm’s brand identity and develop a suite of new collateral and content to coincide with a major office move and launch of a new website.

Freshwater was commissioned to deliver a brand evolution for Lexington Corporate Finance, which was established as a new start-up in 2015, and launch its new brand identity to stakeholders. The aim was to conduct brand research, provide guidance on a new identity and develop a brand strategy which better reflected the depth of expertise within the firm and its collaborative and supportive culture.

We held a workshop with the senior team to obtain key insights to develop the foundation and strategic direction for the brand. We also carried out primary brand research, including a marketing and communications audit, competitor analysis and interviews with representatives from the target audience to inform the process.

This insight enabled us to develop a ‘Brand Key’, which included a list of customer benefits, focused positioning statements, and values, beliefs and personality traits aligned to the brand. We conducted focus groups to gain feedback on the ‘Brand Key’, which was used to develop three strategic creative options. These were then narrowed to one preferred identity that was brought to life through a suite of creative executions and supported by a comprehensive set of brand guidelines.

The rollout of the new brand needed to be delivered in conjunction with the development of a new website and the firm’s relocation. We developed a detailed project plan, and provided resources that allowed Lexington to deliver a ‘sneak preview’ to existing clients and partners, execute a teaser campaign online and via social media and deliver the full brand reveal.

We translated the new identity across a range of assets: from stationery, brochures and presentations to signage and exhibition graphics. We also created digital assets in the new brand, including email signatures, social media graphics, screensavers, animated ‘logo sting’ and a timeline graphic, charting the evolution of the firm from 2015 to 2022.

The brand development process had a number of outputs and formed part of a wider programme of activity which included strategy development, PR, advertising, social media and content development for the new website. In the 30 days after the brand reveal, Lexington saw a 229% month-on-month increase in website views (without any paid-for traffic), while impressions and engagement on Linkedin increased by over 400% in the six months after implementing our social media calendar, compared to the previous six months.

Nigel Griffiths, Commercial Director of Lexington, said:

“The team at Freshwater were a pleasure to work with. They understood the brief and applied the appropriate challenge and rigor to the process. The rebrand and relaunch was a good opportunity for the senior team to ensure that the business reflects their core values. The results are demonstrated in business performance, brand recognition, web and social media presence and a much stronger pipeline. They are lovely people and good fun to work with.”