McKenna Townsend launches refreshed brand

McKenna Townsend has refreshed its brand with a full suite of creative collateral and evolved messaging that fully reflect the company’s DNA. Having recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, the brand refresh draws upon the agency’s heritage, whilst looking firmly to the future.

As the agency entered its 21st year, the team at McKenna Townsend wanted to evaluate where it had come from, what the company stands for now and where it is going. We wanted to refresh the brand so that it continues to resonate with both internal and external audiences, whilst aligning with the company’s ambitious plans for the next five years.

Matt McKenna, Co-Founder and Managing Director of McKenna Townsend, said: “Companies evolve and as they do their brands should reflect this. McKenna Townsend is continually evolving as an agency, adding new skills and services and adapting to a changing world. Our brand needed to evolve as well. Our 20-year anniversary is an excellent opportunity for an in-house, comprehensive and strategic brand review. One of the key questions we needed to ask ourselves was: Do we refresh our brand or rebrand?

“Once we had fully evaluated what we wanted to achieve, it was clear that we needed to maintain our core brand DNA, vision and culture – which has always been an integral element of how we run our successful business. We wanted to reflect the journey the agency has been on, rather than re-engineer an entirely new brand. Our core values are still as important to the agency today as they were 20 years ago – and they will be in the future.

“We also felt that the 20-year investment in time, professionalism and reputation in brand building the company name McKenna Townsend was something we wanted to capitalise on rather than change. However, this was also a great time for us to review and refresh some of the elements that we thought should evolve – such as our logo and key messaging, including our strapline.”

Sarah Townsend, Co-Founder and Managing Director of McKenna Townsend, added: “It was really important that we brought our team on the brand refresh journey with us – they are the heart of the agency and deliver our values day in, day out. They were an integral part of the process, and we wanted to ensure that we captured their input, and critically, buy-in to the end result.

“Our existing vision, values and culture still highly resonated with our teams and our key external stakeholders, but there were some important enhancements that were identified and their feedback was invaluable. We then worked closely with our in-house studio to bring the brand refresh to life in the most impactful and visually aesthetic way – ensuring that it would work across multiple formats and channels including digital, social media, print and signage. We are really pleased with the end result.”

The agency’s previous key strapline of The Relentless Pursuit of Results still very much resonated with audiences. However, it was felt that with the evolution of the agency over the years, and the wide range of service offerings that it now provides, that it was more integral than ever before at providing expert advice and guidance and thus partnering more closely with its clients. The new strapline has evolved from The Relentless Pursuit of Results to being “Integral” – an integral partner to both its clients’ communications success and to its team’s careers.

McKenna Townsend’s key messaging has also evolved with greater focus on the journey with its clients, rather than just the end result – which reflects McKenna Townsend’s consultancy offering more closely. The logo has also been refreshed and updated with a much more modern look and feel – it is cleaner, more concise and importantly flexible to be used across different mediums. The new font is uncluttered and precise and the new blue and green colourways reflect the numerous sectors McKenna Townsend works across – marine, on the land and in the air, as well as its focus on sustainability through its Marine Social Responsibility Consultancy division. The new colon symbol in the refreshed logo is an important icon that is used to emphasise and clarify composition – critical elements in the high-quality content that the agency produces for clients.