Informa

A journey to best in class

We all know that the best work comes from the best client relationships and over the last few years we have developed a special partnership with media group Informa. As its strategic communications partner, we have supported it on a journey from the FTSE 250 into the FTSE 100.

Our integrated Brand & Culture, Investor Engagement & ESG and Sustainability & Impact specialisms were developed with the ambition to help clients present more coherent and effective communication suites, and the Informa account is a compelling example of how powerful this approach can be.

With the acquisition of FTSE 250 UBM having such a large influence on the scale and structure of the business, Informa asked us to change the way it presented itself to the world across all these disciplines.

We developed a new brand platform to unite a diverse international team, establishing a coherent brand architecture that made sense of the enlarged organisation. We articulated a clear customer offer and created a fresh digital-first visual experience that captured the dynamic spirit of the business. Creatively we enhanced every visual element across the brand spectrum, apart from the logotype, which carried legacy equity.

Our brand strategy team helped evolve a new purpose and proposition that Informa could credibly own. ‘Championing the specialist’ captured what made Informa unique. It was a ‘big idea’ that resonated across geographies and helped align the group under a clear proposition. The purpose was supported by a fresh set of values to drive cultural alignment.

A digital-first mindset sat at the heart of the creative challenge as we aimed to develop an agile and interactive visual experience. The core ethos of our approach was to create an identity that could constantly evolve. With well over 100 pieces of collateral to develop, the strength of the creative idea lay in the agility of the identity to be flexed in varying ways across different forms of brand communications.

This built-in flexibility helped us evolve the visual experience for use in the investor engagement space, creating innovative presentation decks and corporate reports. The Annual Report presented the new visual identity as well as showcasing how the new purpose was driving thinking and strategy. It won Best Annual Report, FTSE 100 at the CorpComms Awards.

To create coherence across the corporate reporting suite, the visual style was also integrated into sustainability reporting. The Sustainability Report aligned Informa’s new FasterForward programme with the new brand purpose, explaining how it embeds sustainability into everything it does and helps its customers and specialist markets do the same.