Dynamic Insights

Impact sessions: branding established successful companies

BY THE DYNAMIC TEAM

FEBRUARY 25

Branding companies get involved in all kinds of projects, but there’s one digital learning company based in Leeds that, in its 25th year of successful business, has taken on a rebrand itself. At the time of putting pixels to page, Nick Bramley’s Impact Sessions podcast series is celebrating over 60 episodes and in this episode Nick talks to Dynamic’s Creative Marketing Director, Larner Caleb about why an already established leading elearning company with a quarter of a century of success under its belt would take on the move. You can read the edited interview here or see below that for links to the podcast.

The set of Nick Bramley's Podcast series, The Impact Sessions showing two people in discussion

In brief ...

Larner, was appointed to the team in late 2023 to drive their on-going marketing ambitions. These ambitions included a full and comprehensive re-brand. A re-brand to position the business for even more success. A re-brand to reflect the changing DNA of the business and the changing requirements of their clients and prospective clients in future.

But why would a mature, successful business with a strong client base even consider such a move—and are there lessons for others considering something similar?

Nick: You've been in post as Creative Marketing Director at Dynamic for just over a year, having been contracted to them on the agency side for some time prior to that. Can you explain a little about Dynamic and how the transition came about from agency to in-house?

Larner: Agency business is similar to digital learning; it’s all about people. I’d got to know some of our contacts through working with them and then got to know more of the Dynamic team through a few out-of-work social events, and hence got a feel for the culture—which is just as important as the people who make that culture.

 

In terms of the transition, through doing the work with Dynamic I got to know the brand and to a certain extent, the product and I’ll be honest, the two didn’t sit together in my opinion. What I saw as a fantastic product and service, together with really talented people wasn’t necessarily reflected in the brand as I saw it.

 

When I eventually arrived at Dynamic, I found quite a few people felt the same. In fact, I was already getting ahead of myself and building a picture of what the website should look like and contain. And, in checking the competition, I could see there were a few opportunities for Dynamic to compete more; certainly from a visual and positioning point of view.

 

A couple of things crossed my mind; one, that I’d love to work with this talented group of people and two, that instead of doing it at arms length though the agency set up, I could get stuck in and crack on with what I thought needed doing, first hand.

25-years-of-Dynamic-elearning-company

N: The business has been established—and successful—for 25 years, having recently celebrated that fact with a series of events and activities. So, in the spirit of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, why was a re-brand something of a priority in 2024?

L: It wasn’t really a case of fixing the product or the service; more a case of changing how we were perceived, how we talked about our offering and how we brought out the strong selling points that existing clients loved; the service aspect; the determination to do the best job, not just the fact we had many respected brands and organisations as clients, but also the fact that many clients would endorse us, often with really detailed accounts of our capabilities.

 

It was more a case of creating a brand that brought all that to the fore and visually represented that. When I had the idea of what I thought our site should look like, way back before I even joined the team, in terms of messaging, I said the words, ‘World class’ to Steve.

 

And I meant it.

 

As an outsider, I could see it and I guess a part of the job for me was helping everyone else believe we could say it—and believe it, because it is a big part of the brand.

N: With such a mature and established brand and obviously a lot of existing collateral in place, how did the business react to and embrace the idea of a total rethink—as this was much more than a brand refresh?

L: It’s interesting you put it like that. And whilst it looks radically different, in my head, it’s not a total rethink. It’s pulling out a few levers here, pressing a few buttons there; almost like resetting the course of a ship or even rearranging a room. For instance, you might want to put our customer endorsements in the spotlight, but then hideaway a visual device that nobody can rationalise.

 

Take the recent rebrand by Jaguar, for instance—which it seems just about everyone on social media has completely lost it over. I bet you the quality of the cars won’t alter for a while, or the attitude of the people who make them; excuse the pun, but under the bonnet, it will still be Jaguar. But for some of the people commenting on the pitfalls of the new brand such as completely rubbishing the whole heritage, perhaps they could have brought some more of that out either visually or through messaging—but, like I say, these are elements you can bring out, make more reticent or get them completely locked away and throw away the key.

 

To bring it back to Dynamic; it’s still the same Dynamic. Before the rebrand, we had 12 values—all very worthy; but … I bet most of the company can only remember one or two.

So, part of the job, after consulting with the team and clients was to distil those values down to a smaller number of values that we can all remember—because there is absolutely no point in a brand having any values if people cannot remember to live and work by them. Now, those 12 values haven’t been done away with; they’ve just been considered thoroughly and sit under fewer, but more overarching values.

 

In terms of how the business reacted, it wasn’t sold in as a radical change, more of a shift to bring out more of our star qualities. Importantly, getting everyone involved at the start is not only a huge info-gathering help, it helps to get people around the idea in the first place.

That might sound like a too many cooks recipe for a disaster waiting to happen, but I’m literally talking about workshops gathering opinions, facts and ambitions at the very first stages.

 

On top of that, we could have worked with any number of branding companies in Leeds. But the simple fact is, we have a group of very creative and talented people here, many of whom have created many brands, so it seemed the obvious choice to keep this branding project in-house.

N: For the benefit of our audience, how do you even go about starting something as all-encompassing as this? How daunting is it as a challenge?

L: I’d call it super-exciting, rather than daunting. Well, as you’ve gathered, a series of workshops involving the whole company were held. This was not only a great learning experience, but also a great way for me to meet everyone and tackle something in ernest, together with everyone. Simultaneously, I’d start piecing a mind map together which would include a SWOT for us set against strengths and weaknesses of competitors, market positioning and messaging, comparing us to others. The outputs of the workshops would then feed into developing a proposition, an approach and a framework which would go on to inform any creative work.

N: Whilst you are the Creative Marketing Director of the project, how much of a team effort does there have to be to get the job done, and how long was the planned process from start to re-brand launch?

L: It’s more teamwork than I can ever tell you. There’s the bit at the start where everyone is involved and everyone’s opinion is greatly valued. There’s a bit where you have to go away and pull some threads together in isolation. Then a bit where one or two options are considered by a smaller group of people in order to get clarity on the direction, then a big bit where it all hits the fan with a deadline looming, where everyone gets back involved again. And wow, how they did, here at Dynamic!

N: It must help that as a very creative, cutting-edge digital learning content creation business, you have access to a brilliant design team, but with so many moving parts and the 25th birthday date looming, presumably non-negotiable as launch date, what were the most challenging moments of the journey?

L: Not just the design team—which is ace as you say, but the whole Dynamic team’s been amazing, from making sure it looks the part, to making sure it reads right, from developing digital collateral to organising what gets done, when. It’s a privilege to work with a very willing, proactive team. The most challenging part? Spreadsheets! My brain melts the instant one opens in front of me. Luckily, there are people who are far adept with spreadsheets than me.

N: One of the things I love about the new dynamic brand is the clarity and simplicity of language supporting the exceptional design. The new brand (and the business) is being built around the three cornerstones of, Innovation, Inspiration, and Integrity. What’s the story there and how did you come to settle on these three?

L: That’s where some of the workshop sessions played their part. Some of the feedback was that certain parts of the previous brand were either confusing, not needed or overcomplicated.

 

So one of the first stages of the approach was to simplify. And this could be justified by the fact that the work and the service in the first place was first class; so we didn’t need any visual smoke and mirrors to cover any cracks in our offering—which meant there was a real confidence to simplify.

 

I picked the number of values, both for practical, scientific reasons and if I’m being honest, totally arbitrary reasons, too. Practically speaking, a group of people will struggle to remember every value if you pick a larger number. In practise, that will work by some people remembering two, someone else remembering another two and someone else at best remembering three or four—but they could be different ones again.

 

That means, if you truly want people to operate by the values the company sets, those people are all pulling in slightly different directions, which is obviously not what you want for your team or your clients.

 

Choosing just three values was the somewhat arbitrary part; we had this idea that the capital D from Dynamic had three sides—which also could act as a play button, which also could imply moving forward or progress.

 

So there was a lot of triangle chat—three sides, three values, three words in the strapline. Let’s keep everything simple!

Page from Dynamic's brand guidelines

N: Can you tell the story behind these in a little more detail?

L: We chose Innovation, Inspiration and Integrity because they encapsulated the 12 previous values. As mentioned I can’t remember them all, but for example, two were Creative and Curious; well they’re covered by Innovation. I think there was Accountable, Responsible, Open & Honest in there, too—all naturally covered by integrity.

 

Why those values in particular?

 

Innovation is one of our strongest points. We have an Innovation Manager, Elliot who dedicates himself to staying ahead of the tech curve and we pride ourselves on pushing the boundaries for our clients. You might say it’s a pillar of the business. 

 

Inspiration has a dual meaning. We want people to be excited by learning; to look forward to progressing and growing, so our learning is designed to attract and engage. But it’s also about inspiring a difference, being a physical and mental catalyst for change, because we might be inspiring great staff retention, inspiring safer working practices, inspiring more efficient productivity or inspiring more profitability—so inspiration is a key value for Dynamic.


Integrity was always going to be included. I’ve worked with Steve and Lisa as a supplier and as a member of the team and it’s plain to see they’ve embedded transparency into everything from working practices to pricing and how we deal with clients.

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N: Given the new brand, the new clarity on language and positioning (including a new library of new brand collateral), what are your immediate ambitions for the brand, and what do you see happening with—and to it over the next year?

L: In the first instance, a commercial return. I want us to get noticed more. People to think yeah, Dynamic are definitely worth contacting or I can see that they’re good people to work with.

In the longer term, I want the brand to have some longevity but also evolve as the business does and continue to reflect the amazing work that comes out of the team.

N: How are your colleagues in the business—I am thinking particularly the sales team and those engaging existing customers—using the new brand and what has been the reaction and feedback?

L: Feedback has been very positive, but strangely enough, I never wanted to create a brand that everyone was totally happy with. I think the best brands have some friction in there; people who love them and others that really don’t. Hopefully the Sales Team is aided not just by the look of the new brand but that hopefully the messaging is clearer. However, the main thing for me is that it’s a brand that helps current customers see where we are and potential customers can see what we can do for them.

N: What advice would you share with anyone in any business—mature or not, who may be considering a rebrand, or even a brand refresh?

L: Ask yourself why you’re thinking about branding in the first instance. If you haven’t got a good, commercially focussed answer, then look at other areas of your business to improve.

N: What was the biggest learning for you and for the business as a whole from the process at Dynamic?

L: Creating a brand isn’t easy. Plenty can go awry. But don’t try and please everyone all the time. And always bear in mind why you’re doing it in the first place.

N: Assuming that a brand is a living entity for any business, how are you planning to keep the new brand fresh, current and relevant to your audience going forward?

L: I think organisations can get too uptight about their own brands. Obviously there needs to be structure and guidelines, but I’m more than happy for the team to take ownership of the brand and evolve it for the right reasons. That may be a change in market conditions, a new aspect to our offer or service—or to align with the way we, or the industry innovates. If it’s the right thing to do for the business, then it’s our brand to do what’s right with and we have a tight enough team to make those calls.

Dynamic elearning company logo

N: Finally, on the Dynamic site you've written an Insights piece which highlights in more detail some of the background.

L: Many brands just launch a new brand or a refresh and show just the logo initially. Then LinkedIn sets on fire with everyone piling in with their opinion—often very negatively and without knowing the full picture, the strategy or even the ambition. There’s a few things to this piece for me.

 

Firstly, I wanted to make people both internally and externally, aware that it wasn’t just about a fresh lick of paint – and that people’s input was valued and taken on board.

 

I wanted to communicate where the thinking was from; why we’d taken the direction we had. I’m a very down to earth person and more than aware that people can think of branding as a bit fluffy or even an superfluous addition to a business when in fact it should be a tool to help generate credibility, trust and business.

 

Lastly, I saw it as a courtesy to any existing clients, to let them know where we are, why we are doing what we are doing and our hopes for ourselves and them in the future.

N: Thank you so much for being a very engaging and insightful guest. For anyone seeking the very best that digital learning companies can offer, I can only recommend reaching out to Dynamic Business Services. Whilst their new brand is extremely impressive, it is dwarfed by the scale of their exceptional elearning content creation and communications. Thanks again for listening to or watching this episode of The Impact Sessions. As always a like or a share on the Podcast Platform of your choice would be much appreciated and very helpful to growing our audience. See you for the next episode available from next Tuesday…..

You can watch Nick’s episode with Larner here.

 

And you can catch up with all the Impact Sessions podcasts, here.

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