An agency rebranding an agency isn’t the norm. But this one made sense... Propel Digital had spent the last decade quietly becoming a serious force in performance marketing, scaling fast and delivering results for house hold brands. The agency had built a strong reputation but the brand hadn’t kept up.
This was a chance to align what Propel had become with how it showed up. Strategy through to execution, built to stand our in a saturated market.
Propel's brand didn’t reflect the sophistication of the business, the quality of its thinking, or the level of clients they're working with. More importantly, it didn’t separate them from a sea of agencies all saying broadly the same thing.
At the same time, the category itself is shifting. With the rise of AI and platforms automating media buying, the value of agencies is being questioned. The ones that survive will be the ones that go beyond execution and embed themselves deeper into a client’s business. Propel needed a brand that clearly signalled that shift. Something that captured how they actually work, and gave them a platform to keep growing.
We started by aligning the internal view of the business.
Using the golden circle, we worked across the Propel team to understand how the agency is perceived internally. The responses varied, but consistently pointed towards performance, data, and client growth. What was missing was a single, clear articulation of how these elements come together. A common challenge.
Alongside this, we looked at client expectations. The consistent theme was that brands want agencies to operate as an extension of their business. Not just to deliver campaigns, but to understand commercial challenges and contribute to broader growth.
This highlighted a clear gap in the market. Many agencies are structured around efficiency, leading to standardised outputs and limited depth of engagement.
From this, we defined a focused position:
1. Clients want an agency that understands their business in detail
2. Most agencies operate at a surface level due to structural constraints
This informed both the strategic direction and the core propositions.
Product Proposition
Delivering sustainable growth for brands by combining human thinking with the accuracy and efficiency of data and tech.
Brand Proposition
We dive deeper into your business so you can go further with your growth.
Emotional Benefit
Working with a partner that understands your business and contributes meaningfully to its progression.
Distilled into a clear organising idea, we found:
We dig deeper so you can grow further.
We intentionally retained elements of the previous identity to maintain continuity, starting with the hexagonal form used within the original logo. This became the foundation for developing a more distinctive and purposeful mark.
From there, we introduced a simple but meaningful visual device. A downward point to represent digging into a client’s business, paired with an upward arrow to signal growth. Both forms sit within the hexagon, creating a clean, balanced icon that reflects how Propel works in practice.
The wider identity was designed to support this. Typography was chosen for clarity and consistency, ensuring it works effectively across all applications. The colour palette was pushed further, using bolder and less conventional tones for the category to help the brand stand out across both digital and print environments.
The result is a system that is simple, recognisable and grounded in the core idea of the brand, rather than purely aesthetic change.
