When the timing is right — and you trust the process — branding can be a galvanising, transformational step.
"Holy shit!" — It was the first thing I could think to say. I was on a Zoom call with the team at ContentCal. As a key partner to the team, they'd confidentially just let me in on some news that was about to blow up. ContentCal was going to be acquired by Adobe.
As a result, one of our most exciting creative projects to date would reach its conclusion, much sooner than expected. It felt bittersweet that it was ending. But I also saw it as a huge win — validating the branding work we'd done. So how did we get there?
The backstory
ContentCal emerged as 'Content Calendr' in 2016. A media marketing platform that makes creating, scheduling and managing content across all channels simple, ContentCal was created as a response to their own challenges. By mid-2020 it was well and truly established, with thousands of active users and £6.2m of seed funding.
The set-up
With funding secured, the team found themselves under new pressures from investors. Growing targets had been escalated, and the P in their KPIs was under greater scrutiny. Their current brand just wasn't cutting it. Their first big step? Enticing experienced Marketing Director Chris Boddice to join them — tasked with leading a rebrand. They chose Airborne for the project. We were on the same page with it; more importantly, we trusted one another.
The project
We were up against ambitious deadlines. Three months to rebrand the business and redesign its website. So we immersed ourselves in all things ContentCal — the product, the people, the market. We created a strong story and brand position built on the idea of 'Get Clear': a core message that encapsulated all that ContentCal is about.
We experimented with ideas around artificial intelligence and a more dynamic, organic approach to moving data and messaging. This led us to the morphing shapes which became the foundation of the updated logo — and the catalyst for the identity system as a whole. Post-launch, ContentCal reported an immediate bump in all key metrics — from visits, pages viewed, bounce rates and most importantly conversions.
The results
We hit the ambitious three-month target and produced some of our very best work. Within six months of the rebrand, ContentCal had secured their Series A funding. Nine months later, they were acquired by Adobe.
"Our partnership with Airborne was critical to ContentCal's growth. Not only are they amazing brand partners, they've worked closely with us on bringing products to life. They are a rare breed." — Chris Boddice, former ContentCal Marketing Director
The conclusion
It's hard to quantify, but Chris was certain branding played a big role: "We stood out to everybody that we needed to. Customers, influencers, industry experts — the people that mattered. Without having a strong brand, it's arguable that we wouldn't have stood out enough, no matter how much we invested in other areas of the business."
When the timing is right — and you trust the process — branding can be a galvanising, transformational step. Of course, there's no secret formula for a successful exit. Branding alone won't create that kind of value in a startup. But stories like ContentCal's show how, when done well, branding can act as a catalyst; one that takes businesses to a whole new level of success.
