Studio North and Shepherds Friendly have won an award in the Transform Awards Europe 2022.
Our rebrand of Shepherds Friendly won silver in the Best visual identity from the financial services sector category, continuing our ongoing success, which has seen us now bring back 19 trophies from London. The Transform Awards is Europe’s only dedicated celebration of rebranding, repositioning and brand development. It rewards and recognises branding excellence with categories that focus on strategy, execution, content and evaluation.
The 2022 winners were revealed at a very special awards ceremony on 30 March 2022, at the Brewery, Chiswell Street, Central London, and we were delighted to be joined by Libbi Martin and Chris Harrison from Shepherds Friendly for the event.
Shepherds Friendly is a mutual financial services provider, founded in 1826 and currently serving 100,000 members in the UK. They specialise in savings plans for children and adults, including ISAs and tax-exempt savings plans, as well as income protection and whole of life insurance for over 50s.
Shepherds Friendly approached Studio North to help transform their heritage brand identity to align with strategic business objectives. The heart of the challenge was how a 200-year-old organisation could evolve its identity in a way that would retain brand equity and its member base, while simultaneously attracting new members and positioning itself as fit for the future.
Shepherds Friendly’s brand awareness within the financial services market, though on the increase, was still low and perception an equally challenging issue. They were perceived as a small and slightly old-fashioned company by both prospective members and intermediaries.
We faced a delicate balancing act to expand consumer expectations without sacrificing the positive attributes of a modern mutual delivering outstanding service through traditional, centuries-old values.
The outcome is a new and visually appealing brand identity which stands head and shoulders above its competitors in a niche market sub-segment dominated by brands which play safe and fail to convey any semblance of personality.
You can view some of our work for Shepherds Friendly here.
We are absolutely delighted to have won this, our 19th Transform Award, and we’d like to say a big thank you to everybody at Transform Europe, and of course our wonderful clients Shepherd’s Friendly.
