LONDON — AxiCom, WPP’s technology specialist communications agency, has unveiled a new global brand identity to reflect its new positioning as a global communications agency for not only B2B technology brands but also consumer and B2B brands across industries that have a technology story.

The repositioning includes AxiCom’s new stated vision of being “tech communications rebels with a cause, looking ahead, reimagining what’s possible, delivering bold, data-driven communication strategies that create impact on business, people and society.”

AxiCom’s Europe president Kate Stevens (pictured, right) said the rebrand would “bring AxiCom’s personality to life by evolving how we walk, talk and look” and the move encapsulated the firm’s technical understanding, global network – rather than the European and US offices operating effectively as different agencies.

Stevens told PRovoke Media: “We’ve put months of effort into the rebrand, it’s a globally aligned vision for the first time and something we all believe in. It really represents who we are, not the dry, corporate, B2B image that hasn’t represented the diversity of our work, the strength of our people, the breadth of our capability, and our playful culture.

“It’s about AxiCom showing up differently, and is far more reflective of the big consumer work we now do and the work our B2B clients are now asking us to do. It’s about embedding creativity and cultural relevance into everything we do.”

In tandem with the new identity, AxiCom is launching proprietary intellectual property designed to overcome the challenges facing modern marketing communications professionals, including ad blockers, commercial-skipping DVRs, the fragmented media landscape and dwindling trust.

The tools include The Axis, a data-driven campaign process which aggregates bespoke, brand-specific primary and secondary research across audience, brand, culture and technology to produce insights that inform communications strategy and tactics.

In addition, the AxiCom Culture Engine has been developed to position clients at the intersection of media coverage and social conversation through a tech stack including Brandwatch, NewsWhip, Muck Rack, Creator IQ and Onalytica.

Axicom’s Americas lead Lisa Sullivan (pictured, left), who joined from Ketchum in September, told PRovoke Media: “The new positioning and tools are really resonating with clients in new business pitches, they are really buying into it.”

The agency has expanded its data and analytics, digital, content and creative service offerings over the past year, including appointing new global leaders, and Stevens said the firm “continues to look ahead at what is next in tech and communications, whether that is AI, the metaverse, quantum computing or space travel, through to decentralized social networking and collaborating with the emerging business-to-business creator community on TikTok.”

Global CEO Matt Lackie (pictured, centre), who joined the firm from Golin a year ago, said: “In technology, progress is always iterative or explosive. Our new brand story is our own breakthrough moment - uniting our global forces behind a new vision to deliver even more breakthrough work for our clients. We take pride in helping clients step out of the sea of sameness, and our new identity and vision – which aims to challenge the industry status quo and champion our tech expertise, local mindset and entrepreneurial roots – help us do the same.”

AxiCom, which was founded in 1994 and bought by WPP in 2008, was named as PRovoke Media’s best EMEA network agency to work for and best technology agency in EMEA earlier this year.