Solving debt together
UK Debt Expert approached us for a rebrand that would have a company - wide impact and change the way the brand was perceived by their staff and consumers alike.
Challenge
To create a brand proposition, design a new visual identity and rebrand the UK’s largest debt consolidation company.
Background
UK Debt Expert is the UK’s largest debt consolidation company and they’ve already helped over 220,000 people to find a way to deal with their debt. They lead the industry from a compliance and creative perspective, and they are the brand that others tend to copy and follow.
It’s important to them that they continue to stand out, so to keep their website and brand fresh – and because so many companies had copied what they’d already done – they wanted to show that they’re still the trailblazers within their sector.
What we did
To determine how the people at UKDE felt about their own company – and how that knowledge would influence our thoughts for creating their brand proposition – we hosted a brand discovery workshop where we were able to distil their opinions and thinking into a range of proposition options.
From this, we were able to begin the process of changing the way the company projected itself into the marketplace by making them feel much more open, accessible and ready to help offer solutions. Which is exactly what they do as a company.
The key to this was developing a new brand marque that encapsulated the open nature of the company and how they work in partnership with each customer to help solve their debt issues.
To complement this logo, we completely redesigned their visual identity to ensure the focus was on a more accessible, more human treatment to imagery and colour – all combined with a much more open style.
The mosaic-style design is a recognisable and versatile supporting graphic language that echoes the rounded, friendly form of the new marque. We created it as the 'visual glue' that binds every communication, providing immediate brand recognition and at a hero level, it's a rich visual device that contains photography to represent the diversity of the customers that UKDE help. In addition, it also represents the tailored solutions that UKDE piece together for every customer.
From then on, it was about using the brand toolkit to create physical collateral and merchandise – and launch the brand into the wider world.
Results
Through the various phases of this rebrand, we worked with UK Debt Expert and market research team at Taylor McKenzie to test consumer sentiment towards the rebrand, across UK Debt Expert’s four target audiences.
The quantitative and qualitative research findings support the consolidation of portfolio brands into the UK Debt Expert master brand, along with the rebranded visual identity and messaging framework.
The new logo and visual identity resonates with target customers, and makes them feel supported. Analysis highlights that the rebrand feels more inclusive and will create a positive impact for the brand.
The new tone of voice is also landing well with target audiences. The focus on personalisation and empowerment is making UK Debt Expert’s core customers feel supported when seeking help during a particularly emotive situation.
Overall, the transition from corporate and functional, to approachable and human is expected to create many positive impacts for the UK Debt Expert brand and their customers.
Natalie Flynn Brand Manager, UK Debt ExpertWorking with the team at Dog Digital has truly been an enjoyable experience from the outset. The team really took the time to get to know the company, and what we we’re looking to achieve, going above and beyond to understand both the motivations of the customer and the journey they would embark on as one of UK Debt Expert’s clients.
We approached Dog with a twofold task: creating a new brand within “60 days” and trying to do something different in a saturated market. It’s fair to say that the brief has been achieved and then some. The new branding has so many different levels; from the use of shapes and imagery to an extensive colour palette and how animation has been weaved strategically into the website homepage design – something which cannot be easily copied.
The response internally to the new branding has been overwhelmingly positive with one colleague describing the new website as the “best-looking debt help company out there”. It’s not hard for our employees to buy into a brand which is modern and unlike anything we’ve done previously but also a brand that they can clearly see that a lot of thought and attention to detail has gone into. The best example of this is in the development of the logo and how it represents the story of our customers, their interaction with our expert team and how we strive to guide and protect them on their journey towards a better financial future.
Beyond all the serious stuff, the team at Dog are genuinely just a great bunch of people to work with and I look forward to working with them all more closely in the near future on the production of the new UK Debt Expert TV advert.