Tag: Landor & Fitch

London, UK – Landor & Fitch, a brand consulting firm under WPP, has announced its official rebranding as Landor as it introduces expanded consulting capabilities.

Inspired by the transformative power of water, the brand’s refreshed ultramarine identity pays tribute to the origins of the business founded by Walter Landor on a ferry boat in San Francisco harbour.

Landor’s rebranding is the result of a five-year strategy that has seen the WPP company’s consulting, design, and experience offerings expand significantly.

For the past year, Landor has bolstered its consulting capabilities with a rapidly growing brand performance practice. It also broadened its retail experience offer in 2020 with a merger with Fitch, continuing to build out its brand-led employee experience offer.

The business has welcomed into its expanding family the sonic branding agency amp, workspace and architectural design experts BDG, and motion design specialists ManvsMachine.

Jane Geraghty, group global CEO at Landor, said, “Over the last five years, our business has evolved, and our offer has expanded significantly. We’ve welcomed world-class specialists in sonic, motion, and workspace design, and today, most importantly, we have come together as one team with a shared culture. United in our drive to make a positive difference.”

Teemu Suviala, global chief creative officer at Landor, also shared, “Our new brand charts an ambitious course for our future. We use our new brand colour, the ultramarine blue, to signal the redefining of the brand and design category.”

He added, “Our design and expression capabilities are now unparalleled. For our own brand, we tapped into brilliant creative minds from around our network, just as we would do for our clients, to create a brand that comes to life in every facet—from visual and verbal to sonic and motion.”

London, United Kingdom – Global brand and design consultancy Landor & Fitch has announced its appointment of Liz Wilson as its new group chief integration officer.

Prior to joining Landor & Fitch, Wilson served as Managing Director, growth and integration for Accenture Song Europe, and previously as chief operating officer across Karmarama’s diverse group of capabilities, bringing over 25 years of expertise in advertising, branding, digital and customer experience and is a specialist in integrating these disciplines to drive growth.

In her new role, Wilson will be responsible for bringing together Landor & Fitch’s growing group of brand and design specialist agencies to create unique integrated client solutions.

Speaking on her appointment, Wilson said, “I’m thrilled to be joining Landor & Fitch in this exciting new role. I’m looking forward to bringing together everything I’ve learned in creative and professional service businesses elsewhere to help continue the rapid growth already being driven by the enhanced range of skills and capabilities.”

“I’m particularly looking forward to working with the talented Landor & Fitch team to create broader, bolder, more innovative solutions with the power to transform our clients’ brands and businesses,” she added. 

Meanwhile, Jane Geraghty, global CEO of Landor & Fitch, commented, “We are delighted that Liz is joining our team. With the expansion of our offer, and our new specialist partners, Liz is uniquely qualified to help us unite our teams and strengthen our offer for clients.” 

“Her extensive experience and track record of transforming and growing creative businesses make her the ideal candidate to lead our integration and growth efforts as we continue to evolve our offer to meet the needs of our ambitious clients. We are also delighted to bring another strong, inclusive female leader into our leadership team,” she concluded. 

Wilson’s appointment is part of Landor & Fitch’s ongoing strategy to expand its offer to meet the evolving needs of their clients as the group has brought in new capabilities, including ManvsMachine for motion design, Fitch for experience design, bdg for workspace design and most recently, amp for sonic branding, to offer truly multi-faceted brand-led design solutions.

Germany – British multinational advertising and communications holding company WPP has announced the acquisition of global sonic branding agency amp. Said agency will be now integrated into WPP’s brand and design consultancy Landor & Fitch.

The acquisition adds up to the agency’s expertise in delivering immersive brand identities that transform customer and employee experiences and set brands apart in a competitive marketplace.

amp’s expertise will strengthen WPP’s offer in experiential branding and its ability to create high-quality, differentiated, and ownable sound experiences for clients.

Founded in 2009 by Michele Arnese, amp is based in the US, Europe and Asia, with main office hubs in Germany and the US. Its global team of more than 60 people has created award-winning sonic identities for some of the world’s most influential brands, including Mastercard, Mercedes-Benz, Kraft Heinz, Deloitte, Shell, and General Motors.

Speaking on the acquisition, Arnese said that they are excited to join the WPP family, adding that this industry-first move shows the significance of sound as a must-have brand design and experience component. 

“Integrating more closely with Landor & Fitch, true pioneers in brand design and consulting, will give us the opportunity to scale our award-winning Sonic DNA® design framework and our sonic AI platform Sonic Hub within a broader brand identity context. Our global team of creatives, sonic experts, producers, client leads and researchers will team up with Landor & Fitch and WPP to unleash the power of audio, making brands sound better. We are beyond thrilled to begin this new chapter,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Mark Read, CEO at WPP, said, “With the rise of streaming, podcasting and short-form media, audio has become a critical component of the marketing mix. The acquisition of amp enhances our offer to clients, helping them create immersive experiences that engage consumers on a deeper level and drive their competitive advantage.”

Lastly, Jane Geraghty, global CEO at Landor & Fitch, said, “I’m delighted to welcome amp into the fold. The team is truly best-in-class and has effectively defined the rapidly growing sonic branding space with its work on clients like Mastercard and Mercedes-Benz. This acquisition gives us an unparalleled breadth of capability – graphic, digital, motion, physical, product and experiential – and now sonic. It will also help us accelerate our rapidly growing accessible design practice. I’m enormously excited about what we can achieve together.”

Hong Kong – Global brand and design consultancy Landor & Fitch has named Teemu Suviala as its new chief creative officer. Suviala was most recently the global head of brand design at Meta’s Reality Labs.

In his new role, he will take responsibility for Landor & Fitch’s award-winning creative teams in studios across more than 20 countries worldwide, working with clients such as Apple, Netflix, Coca-Cola, LEGO and the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Reporting to Jane Geraghty, global CEO at Landor & Fitch, Suviala will lead the continued expansion and evolution of the company’s design offer, with a particular focus on integrating new technologies.

During his previous stint at Meta, he and his team worked closely on the company’s high-profile rebrand from Facebook, including the naming, branding and visual identity. Alongside this, Suviala led the expansive brand design work in bringing Meta’s metaverse concepts to the fore across breakthrough technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. 

He is an entrepreneur and adventurous designer, bringing over 25 years of creative and management experience. An impressive portfolio includes creatives for clients including Amnesty International, Google, Spotify and Uniqlo.

Speaking on his new role, Suviala said, “An incredible set of clients. Award-winning work. Stubbornly future-forward thinking. Landor & Fitch holds huge appeal to a creative mind, and the opportunity for growth is unlimited. But it was the culture here that spoke to me most – a singular vision and commitment to working as one to deliver the extraordinary and make a positive difference.”

He added, “I’m excited to join a culture that not only obsesses about creativity and innovation to achieve success but aspires to reach it together. I’m keen to explore how we can be at the forefront of the Imagination Age with new technologies such as A.I. and by blurring the lines between our physical and virtual worlds to create the better, bolder brand experiences which appeal to the consumers, clients, and stakeholders of today and tomorrow.” 

Geraghty said, “I am delighted that Teemu is joining our team. He’s an exceptional designer with a long track record of delivering transformative work and a compassionate leader with a truly global view. The breadth of his experience will be invaluable as we continue to expand and evolve our offer to meet the needs of our ambitious clients. With our recent rapid growth and influx of new talent, Teemu’s passion for nurturing creative cultures makes him the perfect creative leader for us.”

Rob Reilly, global chief creative officer at WPP, said: “It’s hard to find a global talent with as long a track record of creative excellence as Teemu. But what impresses me most about him is his commitment to bringing greater diversity to the design industry. We can’t wait to see the impact he has on our people and clients.” 

Hong Kong – Global brand transformation company Landor & Fitch has announced its enhanced leadership roster in Asia-Pacific amidst greater demand for data backed branding and unique experience design. In addition, the appointments add to a 300 strong team located in studios across the region from Tokyo to Mumbai, Sydney and Beijing.

The new appointees are namely Julius Cruickshank, creative director and head of Sydney and Melbourne design team; Monica Zhu, insights and analytics director for Hong Kong; Stephen Pill, strategy director for experience; and Nav Kumari, senior director for client services in APAC.

Cruickshank’s 20 years of experience working with the likes of the Australian Government, Crown Resorts, Dolby and KPMG will be leveraged to create brands that are relevant, uniquely creative and deliver tangible business results. Meanwhile, Zhu brings 17 years of experience in consumer insights and analytics, specialist branding, market analysis, new product development and go-to market communications to the award-winning Hong Kong studio of the company.

In addition, Pill will set the strategy for how Landor & Fitch develop innovative experiences, building on global award-winning work with Singtel, Swire and Apraava Energy. Lastly, Kumari has expertise across FMCG, retail, and telecommunications with a strong intent to create regionally and locally relevant solutions that help to positively transform their portfolio of FMCG brands.

Jonathan Cummings, president at Landor & Fitch for APAC, commented, “2022 has got off to a very exciting start for Landor & Fitch across the region following a great performance in 2021 and I am delighted that we continue to welcome star talent to the team.”

He added, “We expect to see growing needs for clients to reimagine and reinvent their brand ambition and experience to thrive in the new normal. Our breadth and depth of expertise in brand transformation, underpinned by our insights and analytics capability will ensure we can deliver powerful and tangible business results for our clients.”