IPM

The challenge

“Can you see the world the way it is? To distinguish what is real, from how things appear?”, these are the opening lines of the philosophy video we created for our client as part of their rebranding project. But let’s rewind to the start of 2017 when IPM, a Stockholm-based, alternative systematic manager, came to us for a holistic rebrand to reflect global investors’ changing perceptions and a growing requirement for greater transparency.

It had being going for 18 years, and having successfully navigated through challenging environments it now wanted to solidify its values and philosophy and to present them to the outside world, in the form of a stronger, more relevant and consistent brand. A good agency now needed to find the core of what IPM really stood for and to express that with clarity and conviction.

Our solution

The project began with discovery; comprising internal and external stakeholder interviews and staff survey. This resulted in our strategic analysis and insights such as that IPM was truly unique among its peers but that difference was not always clearly articulated through its existing brand. This created a compelling opportunity for us to better define IPM’s brand story.

We identified IPM’s key differentiating brand value as “openness” and built a whole story around it; starting with the new logotype (which uses transparency as its theme) and down to the smallest micro-interactions on the new website and videos, where the consistently horizontal movement is always a ‘revealing’ one. Transparency, inclusivity and responsible investing are all recurring themes which stem from IPM’s Swedish origins, now shown on a global stage.

We also saw an opportunity to make the IPM acronym more distinctive and memorable, by making the letter ‘I’ stand for more than the original ‘Informed (Portfolio Management)’ thus turning it a vehicle for communicating IPM’s personality traits.

The new branded communications include a new website, philosophy and employee videos, infographics, performance factsheets, pitch and legal documents, digital templates, office branding and an advertising campaign. We’ve defined IPM’s new tone of voice and have provided the narrative to work seamlessly with our design concepts.

The success

Being entrusted with the strategy, design and delivery of all of these elements was a huge vote of confidence in our agency, gave us the creative freedom and flexibility to use the client’s budget intelligently and efficiently and went on to build a strong working relationship between our and our client’s project teams. The breadth of the mandate enabled us to plan for and consider the smallest detail, while keeping focus on the bigger strategic picture.

The resulting new brand is a true reflection of how IPM would now like its distinctive philosophy and offer to be perceived by their investors on a global stage. Our client’s original vision became our vision and together we made it reality. We now look forward to continuing this mission with our client’s words reminding us why we do what we do:

“You really surprised us by how well you got to understand our organisation and the people behind it, showing the same conviction in our beliefs as if you were one of us. This is reflected in every piece of the project deliveries, and we all feel this new branding truly conveys the spirit of who we are!”

Now that’s real.

 

View the IPM website - click here