PHD launches brand refresh to reflect its 'Take the Leap' philosophy

Omnicom Media Group's PHD has undergone a brand refresh with a new mark to reflect its philosophy “Make the Leap” - a call to action for leveraging the power of imagination to drive disproportionate growth for its clients’ business. The new branding will be implemented internally and externally across all of PHD’s markets. 

PHD’s new brand identity, created in collaboration with independent design director, Cosmo Jameson, has been designed with digital, motion, and audio capabilities in mind and reimagined to fully embody PHD’s brand philosophy. At the core of the brand refresh are visual assets that represent PHD’s values of creativity, courage, openness, collaboration, and curiosity. This reflects the creativity and innovation of PHD’s talent that powers business growth. The agency's identity also comes alive with brand imagery and film that will allow the viewer to feel the agency’s values; by showing the duality of a world reimagined from one state to another through visual lateral leaps.

Mark Holden, worldwide chief strategy officer at PHD, said that advancements in data and technology have enabled marketers to improve how they target and measure their campaigns. "However, while this is hugely important, at PHD, we know that every great campaign starts with a great creative idea. That’s why our new identity focuses on creativity above all else – because it’s the power of imagination that drives disproportionate growth, not just reports and spreadsheets," he added.

Jameson said that PHD has an industry-leading intelligence born from the duality of strategy and creativity. “The brief was to capture the imaginative leaps and it’s the visual theme of duality, along with ‘the leap’, that drives an ownable visual language throughout the identity, defining brand imagery and film but most noticeable in the brand mark which has been recrafted as an ambigram. The mark has been designed to harness a sense of kinetic energy. Its rotational symmetry allows it to demonstrate its ambigram qualities in motion but in static, its form somewhat suggests it’s about to spring into action at any moment," he added.

Separately, PHD secured a series of client wins across the globe this year. Earlier in May, Audi appointed PHD Hong Kong to take on its media duties, including planning and buying for the brand. The appointment will last for 20 months. 

Additionally, Subway appointed PHD to handle media planning and buying duties for Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan in April this year. The previous incumbents were MediaCom and Mindshare which were appointed in 2015 and 2018 respectively. At the same time, Shanghai Jahwa appointed PHD China to handle its media planning business with immediate effect. This was also the first time Shanghai Jahwa consolidated its media planning business under an agency. In February, Hong Kong-based overseas property specialist Raeon International named PHD Hong Kong as its strategic brand partner to handle brand planning and digital responsibilities.

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PHD China wins Shanghai Jahwa account
Raeon International appoints PHD HK to handle digital responsibilities
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