In a rapidly shifting business landscape, the need for brands to adapt and evolve has never been more critical. Bulletproof, the world’s largest independent brand agency, recognized this imperative with their recent rebranding initiative.
Spearheaded by Andi Davids, Global Strategic Business Director, the rebrand aimed to maintain the agency’s signature boldness while redefining their brand identity to reflect new capabilities and resonate with a diverse, expanding client base.
In this exclusive interview with, Andi takes us behind the scenes of this transformative journey, revealing the challenges, insights, and creative solutions that shaped Bulletproof’s new identity.
What was the brief for the rebrand?
Maintain the boldness that’s synonymous with Bulletproof’s past while evolving the brand to better communicate our new positioning, to better reflect our expanded capabilities, and to better resonate with our growing client base. And finally, in the words of our founder, Gush, “make it cool as fuck”.
Better reflect our new positioning
The world looked very different when we opened our first studio in London in 1998, and it’s changed even more rapidly the past five years. The business landscape is more complex. Technology and culture are evolving at breakneck speed and consumer behaviour is changing in response. A recent study by PwC found 45% of global CEOs don’t believe their businesses will be viable in ten years’ time if they continue on their current paths. In short, to drive desire for their business in the future, they need to disrupt what they’re doing today.
Which is why now, more than ever, our clients need bold creativity. But they’re increasingly risk averse. Our new positioning - the world’s largest independent brand agency - directly addresses this. Firstly, the focus is on BRAND, not just design. From conception to execution to activation; we can do it all. Secondly, our independence is our beating heart, allowing us to deliver creativity that is unbridled and, we believe, unrivalled in the industry. And finally, scale. Our global footprint gives clients the confidence that we have the firepower to deliver wherever they are.
Better reflect our expanded capabilities
We’re still largely known for our stellar legacy in pack, and we are incredibly proud of that, let me be clear. But we’re doing so much more. We’ve built a powerful suite of new capabilities - from insight to innovation, voice to motion, 3D to digital anthropology - and we’re taking on new types of briefs ranging from employer branding to above the line campaigns. We needed a brand as dynamic as we are.
Better resonate with our growing client base
Our list of clients outside CPG keeps growing. From major sports leagues to luxury travel, biotech to education, consumer electronics to brick-and-mortar retail, we’re actively cracking open work in new categories. We’re also rapidly expanding into new regions, having secured our first pillar account in Dubai. So, whether a £20k bottle of Scotch or the world's leader in scientific information solutions, we needed a brand that can create desire through disruption for every client we partner with.
How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?
Oh man, it took AGES! We originally began working on a renewed articulation of Bulletproof’s brand purpose and platform in 2021 but, as expected, it kept getting sidelined for client work.
The project really gained momentum in 2023 when we made the decision to treat the process exactly as we would a client brief, with a dedicated triumvirate leading its development, a programme manager to align all the moving parts and a stakeholder engagement plan to socialise and sell-in.
Describe the purpose of the brand and its target audience
Our brand platform, Create Desire Through Disruption, is more than just words on a page. For our people, it’s a philosophy, it’s a behaviour, it’s a rallying cry. Most importantly, it’s an organising principle that drives our actions. It’s something everyone in the business can put into practice. Whether on the Creative or Commercial teams, our people can clearly articulate the desired outcome of their discipline and the beliefs and behaviours they need to disrupt in order to achieve it.
For our clients, it’s a sense check for the strategic and creative work we do. Does it deliver on both business and consumer desires? Does it have the potential to disrupt both the category and culture? And for the talent, it’s about creating the most desirable careers and disrupting the traditional agency experience to deliver it, which is the next phase of the rebrand.
What was your thinking behind the rebranding solution?
There’s a lot of fluff out there, a lot of agencies saying the same thing in different ways. So, it was important for us to ground the brand in something substantial.
When it came to our brand platform, Create Desire Through Disruption, we wanted to ensure it was both rooted in theory and able to be put into practice.
Behavioural psychology tells us desire is a fundamental human trait and serves an important purpose. Whether it’s for a more sustainable future, a fulfilling career, or even just a cheeseburger— these ‘propositional attitudes’ inspire us to act.
But to realise our desires, we need to practise ‘instrumental agency’, to challenge existing beliefs and behaviours in service of our goal. In short, we need disruption. And this insight felt very true to who we are at Bulletproof. Disruption is rooted in our attitude. It doesn’t always have to be loud. Silence in the middle of NYC can be disruptive.
Finally, and most importantly, we wanted to deliver something that went beyond a visual refresh, a platform that could galvanise a group of 380+ people across 8 studios and align them behind a unified vision.
Did you learn anything new during the project?
We learned more about who we are as an agency, and the process only reinforced what we’ve always known about the power of brand: it’s not just a new look and feel, it’s a business transformation tool.
What was the biggest challenge? How did you overcome it?
Rebranding a branding agency! We’re 26 years into Bulletproof, and the people who founded the business are still heavily involved in the day-to-day, so needless to say there were a lot of very passionate opinions to consider. Most importantly, we had to understand and translate the vision of our founder, Gush, into something that not only resonated with clients, but also felt ownable to every person on the team.
Finally, we knew from the very beginning one of the more challenging aspects would be maintaining Bulletproof’s attitude and independent spirit while scaling to reflect who we’ve become as the world’s largest independent brand agency. The breakthrough came when we landed on our new brand platform “Create Desire Through Disruption”, which felt like the perfect nod to our roots while pushing us forward as an agency.
What details are you most proud of and why?
From a strategy perspective, it’s the fact that our brand platform is rooted in something real, the psychology of desire. From a culture point of view, I’m most proud of how eagerly it’s been adapted internally. Create Desire Through Disruption is very directive and feels telegraphic. People instantly ‘get it’ and see how it applies to their day to day.
Finally, the way it’s been brought to life visually and tonally is just perfect. The nod to our roots in street art in the wordmark and the early days of graphic design in the colour palette. The flexibility of the system to make an impact when needed, but in a really beautiful way. We can now confidently stand shoulder to shoulder with the iconic brands we partner with while setting the stage for the incredible creative work we do for them.
What do you hope it achieves for the brand?
I hope it allows clients and talent to see us as we see ourselves—clearly communicating the breadth of services we offer while capturing the essence and attitude of Bulletproof. Internally, I want our team to feel empowered to push boundaries and continue delivering unrivalled creativity.
How do you ensure consistency in brand messaging and visual identity across various channels and touchpoints?
We approached the Bulletproof brand experience the same way we do our clients’ brands: holistically. We defined a powerful and actionable brand platform that drives everything we do and developed a set of experience principles to inform how we look, sound and behave, both internally and externally.
We then mapped the client and talent journeys through the brand, identifying the key touchpoints of each, and crafted a brand identity system that’s both fixed to build equity and create memory structures, and flexible to adapt to different touchpoints and culture moments.
Can you discuss any innovative or unconventional approaches you took in developing the rebranding solution?
We can’t share too much right now, but we did work with our in-house Digital Anthropologist James Mackenzie to develop some new methodologies using AI across the digital applications of our brand.
Were there any unexpected insights or discoveries about the brand that emerged during the rebranding process?
The strength of our name really stood out to me. In terms of our offer, the clue’s always been in the name: we Bulletproof brands.
It’s about future-proofing, ensuring brands can withstand whatever’s thrown at them, which is why we wanted to craft an offering that spoke directly to clients’ challenges: market relevance (Growth), brand recognition (Standout) and cultural resonance (Fandom).
How did you ensure that the new brand identity resonated with the brand's existing audience while also attracting new ones?
Our new platform and identity stems from our history and the independent spirit we’ve maintained over the last 26 years. So, we knew if we maintained the same ethos, but developed a brand platform and identity system that could showcase our ability to create end-to-end brand experiences—from insight to strategy to creative to activation—clients, talent and the wider industry would not only recognise Bulletproof through this evolution, but also see even more of what we can do.
Can you share any behind-the-scenes anecdotes or memorable moments from the rebranding project?
A secret bet was made between Rich Anderson, our Associate Creative Director and Céleste Spratt, our Junior Designer, who both worked tirelessly on the new identity. Their wager was over who’d land the final design of our new ‘B’ ident, which represents our platform, Create Desire Through Disruption.
After creating (and debating) what was likely thousands of versions, Céleste’s was finally chosen as the winner. A man of his word, Rich got Céleste’s design tattooed on his body, revealing it on the day of the launch. While we obviously don’t expect our people to show this level of commitment, it was the perfect example of our new platform in action.
What would you do differently if you could do it over again?
Run this as if it were a real life client project from the very beginning! I think every agency can relate to the fact that internal jobs are often the hardest because client work always takes priority, but we got there in the end and couldn’t be happier with the outcome. One thing that is consistent with the work we do for our partners, however, is the passion, commitment and craft from the entire team that went into it
Credit list for the work?
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Nick Rees - Chief Creative Officer
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Andi Davids - Global Strategic Business Director
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Rich Anderson - Associate Creative Director
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Celeste Spratt - Junior Designer
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Henry Bull - Senior Copywriter
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Jordan Assender - Head of Motion
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Ramiro Esteves - Associate Design Director, Motion
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James Bluett - Motion Designer
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Josh Connor - Motion Designer & Editor
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Jim Hare - Creative Director, Digital
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Chirag Grover - Associate Creative Director, Digital
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James Mackenzie - Digital Anthropologist
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Naomi Seah - Midweight Digital Designer
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Keomi Barnes - Global People Director
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Natasha Wilson - Senior Producer
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Rebecca Dixon - Project Lead
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Ryan Hayes - Midweight Designer
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Heather Bloomfield - Senior Creative Services Manager
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Bronie Dickson - Creative Services Manager
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Jenny Walsh - Resource Manager
