Launching a new, unified brand for SSE aligned with its ambitious net zero goals

Learn how Papirfly supported the rollout of a new brand during a time of substantial transition for one of the UK’s biggest energy suppliers.

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SSE’s challenge

As an FTSE-100 listed energy company operating in England, Ireland and other regions worldwide, SSE employs over 12,000 people to meet modern energy needs while working diligently towards a cleaner, greener tomorrow. 

In 2020, following significant changes to the company’s Group architecture, SSE pushed for a fresh brand identity to align with its new strategy. However, for an industry leader operating at this scale, the challenge went beyond planning, managing and executing this project to completion. For true success, the new identity had to be completely consistent across every touchpoint, platform and asset.

Rolling out a consistent brand to a team of thousands

SSE needed to educate every employee in every region about their rebrand – from what the refreshed assets would look like and how they should be used, to the new strategy and mission at the core of this revised identity.

Additionally, with SSE keen to expand the business, it was crucial to roll out this new identity without burdening their global teams with time-consuming tasks like content creation and approval processes.

Finally, with the organisation’s future success hinging on this revitalised image, and COVID-19 forcing many in their global teams to work from home, SSE knew they needed a solution that would enable them to develop, manage, and launch their rebrand remotely.

“Papirfly have provided us with an essential brand management solution that has allowed us to roll out a new brand identity to a wide range of teams and business units across both SSE Group and our regulated electricity network at the same time.

This has enabled us to deliver brand consistency, efficiency and a platform to regularly share new and refreshed brand assets as soon as they become available”

Suzie Rook,
Head of SSE Group Brand and Design
SSE

Beginning the search for a fitting brand management platform

Establishing and rolling out their rebrand was the top priority for SSE. But with consistency, efficiency and time constraints standing in their way, they were keen to find a solution that could:

  • Empower teams throughout the business to create on-brand corporate, sales, marketing and technical collateral in line with their new identity
  • Educate stakeholders to ensure they understood the company’s new identity, goals and direction, and were primed to fully activate it
  • Overcome bottlenecks, allowing departments to devote the time to maintain the momentum of their company’s growth
  • Support remote working and be effortlessly accessed by team members all over the world

With a clear idea of exactly what was required from their ideal brand management solution, they soon discovered Papirfly. Containing everything SSE sought to deliver a clear and consistent identity, the organisation was keen to get started.

Supporting the ambitions of an evolving energy business

Shortly after implementing Papirfly across the business, SSE gained the tools needed to efficiently secure stakeholder buy-in, seamlessly plan and produce on-brand collateral, and effectively manage assets across all facets of the organisation. A comprehensive digital platform positioning their brand for success.

Uniting every stakeholder toward a confident, coherent identity

Securing buy-in from stakeholders from all areas of the business started with the creation of a centralised SSE brand hub. Acting as the single source of truth for their new identity, this hub defined how the SSE brand should look, feel and be used, serving as many employees’ introduction to the company’s revised identity.

This easy-to-access cloud-based online portal housed everything from pre-approved brand templates and style guides to the company mission and vision statements, making it easier for departments to understand and embrace SSE’s new image.

We also developed a separate brand hub for SSE’s electricity networks business, which operates independently from its parent company. This enabled the organisation to establish its own distinct, but equally cohesive and unbreakable brand image.

Empowering studio-quality asset creation across the entire organisation

With the overall identity established and contained, Papirfly’s intelligent design templates then ensured SSE’s designers no longer shouldered the sole responsibility of creating and updating countless brand assets to bring their new identity to life.

Instead, robust and easy-to-use asset creation tools have democratised content production, allowing anyone in the organisation to develop compelling, high-quality collateral for any audience, region or channel with zero risk of straying from guidelines.

Gone are the days of requiring designers to spend hours designing assets from scratch. With practical permissions and approval workflows in place, SSE’s teams are enabled to actively produce content, so their marketing team can focus on growing the business and working toward their net-zero goals.

Centralising asset libraries to allow SSE’s story to shine

SSE desired a way to centralise its vast repository of assets, ensuring those who needed to publish content could access the materials they needed without wasting time searching disorganised folders or recreating lost assets.
With a robust Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution in place, SSE’s marketers can easily find the collateral they need to tell the brand story, without any risk of accessing or publishing outdated or off-brand materials. Time saved and a unified image maintained.

A modern brand management solution for a forward-thinking energy leader

With Papirfly firmly established across all offices and regions, SSE successfully executed the rollout of their new image with complete brand consistency during a time of great change. 

To this day, their brand management platform continues to be a valuable asset for SSE; enabling employees to save time and focus more on the company’s renewable energy initiatives, and their ultimate goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

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