Why Ignition’s Rebrand is About More of What Works

It has been eleven years since exhibitions, events and experiences specialists Ignition set up shop in an aircraft hangar in a field, with a lot of enthusiasm, not much phone reception, and a big idea: to create a sustainable, high-quality exhibitions and events company that would balance people and profit against environmental impact to make a positive difference.

In that time, a lot has changed for them: their offices have got bigger and better (thankfully), and international. Their numbers have increased tenfold, and so have their clients. Ignition have done amazing work in almost every country in the world, as well as huge amounts on their own doorstep in the UK and the USA. And they’ve strengthened their expertise in the aerospace and pharmaceutical industries, while also learning from other sectors and branching out into new ones, including their recent work at baby and child show, Kind & Jugend.

Given all these changes, you might think that their recent rebranding project was also about change: bringing their brand and identity up to date to match the new reality of what Ignition has become. But the team don’t think of it like that: they feel that as the years have gone by, they have become more and more focused on the founding principles of intelligent design (thinking happens before the doing) sustainability and delivering an outstanding service. They were heartened by how clearly that came through in all the research that underpinned this project, and by how strongly their people felt about those principles.

So why spend time, money and effort on a branding project if nothing fundamental has changed? Here’s why:

1. Re-focus - Alignment doesn’t come from the top down, but from the bottom up. As an agency, Ignition spend all their time protecting their customers’ brands, which sometimes makes it difficult to find time to stop and reflect on their own brand. Talking about it with all their people is a great opportunity to ensure that the team are still fully focused on the values, and that they’re still appropriate for the times in which we live.
2. Re-state - Ignition have lived and breathed their values since day one and chosen to work with people who do the same. Their clients know how they work and what kinds of principles they hold dear, but if the company want to reach a wider audience, they need to be able to express them, and their services, in ways anyone can understand, even if they don’t work with the team (yet). To that end, they’ve kept them simple and to the point – EPIC.

Entrepreneurial Spirit: Share ideas freely and even celebrate so-called failures as learning and growing experiences.

Personable Approach: No hierarchies. No egos. No divas. In business, people buy people and the agency always advocate for human-to-human interactions.

Intelligent Thinking: Thinking comes before doing. Every time.

Collaborative Working: The best minds need to work together towards the same goal – whether that’s clients, colleagues, industry experts or beyond.

3. Re-energise - Even the most productive teams can need a boost, so Ignition have taken the opportunity to refresh how they provide that extra lift. A new social club and internal EPIC awards (where employees who have truly lived and breathed the values are recognised – the Annual Winner gets the equivalent of a £1,000 prize and plaque on the EPICs Hall of Fame!) are just a couple of the ways they are continuing to emphasise the importance of their people. While the refreshed visual identity is designed to perk up all our communications with a bright, clean look. And they aren’t finished yet! Watch this space for more developments in the very near future.

Ignition have always believed that if a business has a clear purpose, then it will attract the right people, whether as partners, clients, suppliers or colleagues. This project has been an invaluable vindication of that belief and provides the platform for another ten years’ dedication to their goal of an intelligent, sustainable and high-quality business that puts people and planet ahead of profit.