Forrest Brown

The Solution

ForrestBrown had developed a surprisingly friendly corporate brand, but even that didn’t represent the employer personality that already existed. There was a lot to say, but wasn’t being communicated. To begin with, we developed and executed a robust research programme that included robust internal and external research. That research culminated in an EVP that was truly descriptive, emotive and ownable, and centred around four pillars:

• The difference trust makes
• Proud to be good
• Solutions, not suits
• Small but mighty

Then, the employer brand essence, or rallying cry, was agreed: Share purpose. Feel proud.

We created a look and feel that drew on the insights gathered, along with the EVP pillars and Rallying Cry, to position ForrestBrown in a fresh and exciting way. Distinctive, hand-drawn custom illustrations act as a visual representation of ForrestBrown and the creative, bespoke work we do for clients. Always used alongside birds-eye photography of real objects, that represent ForrestBrown’s various clients, it visually demonstrates how close employees are to the impact of their work. Illustrations are always positive and incorporate ‘real’ elements to form one bigger picture.

We also developed a tone of voice that accurately reflected ForrestBrown’s personality. Although they are professional, they aren’t corporate or boring. So, instead of hiding behind long sentences or meaningless jargon, we use a human tone: simple, clear and honest. Then we summed it all up with a comprehensive employer brand book.

The first stop on our activation journey was a brand-new careers website.

Next, we fully activated the employer brand across a series of marketing collateral, including exhibition stands, online banners, collateral for a ‘Gin Mixer’ event and HTML emails – plus a set of T-Shirts for a charity run.