Tech M&A firm rebranding: the complete ICON Corporate Finance transformation

Posted 6 months ago in brand identity, design chat, web design

How ICON Corporate Finance transformed from international presence to global tech M&A authority through strategic rebranding and design.

It’s time for some serious news, a big reveal. We’ve spent the last year working with ICON Corporate Finance on a complete rebrand that has just launched. This article is the story of how we came to act for them, then what happened next. But first a little background.

ICON operates across five international hubs, from London’s financial district, Silicon Valley to Bengaluru’s tech corridor. With over 300 transactions under their belt and expertise spanning VC, PE, CVC, and corporate investors, they are a rare beast: a truly global tech M&A practice that consistently delivers, as they put it, ‘the best possible deal the market has to offer.’

The only problem was their brand had begun to feel mismatched with their industry. For a firm that maximises shareholder exit value for clients who change the world, their own company looked… ordinary. Their prior identity was a basic globe icon with generic typography, the combination of which suggested international presence, but lacked international sophistication.

We changed all that. Here’s how.

An identity worthy of the master dealmakers

For ICON’s brand transformation to take shape, their core brand identity had to completely change. For any business a significant shift is both exciting and requires a really steely clarity. The binary decision-making involved involves instinct and a certainty of vision, understanding where that business is today and who it wants to be in at least five years time.

The catalyst for change came from within. As Alice Bradshaw-Smith, ICON’s head of marketing, put it: “Our previous branding got us to a brilliant place, but we were ready to take things up a notch and realign our external appearance with our levelling up as a business.”

In preparing the ICON identity presentation, we completed one of the most wide-ranging and varied pieces of research, then design, that we’ve ever done. Looking back at the work we did last summer preparing this, I’m really proud of the creative references, the thought and the sheer variety of work. What’s interesting in particular is that it’s possible to draw a clear line from that initial deck and its creative springboard, to the finished identity.

What’s even more pleasing is that the new brand still ‘feels very ICON’. There’s been a decision to pursue a clear evolution. The top-line brand identity feels very perfect to me, but it’s also right for the market. The new brand needed to be an identity that announced ‘global sophistication’ and given the evolutionary direction we’d been given, suggest connectivity and reach without the literalism of a globe. The smooth lines twist, bounce and swirl within the circle, combining a different set of stroke thickness. Our idea was to show flow and flexibility, connection and imagination, while hint at the international reach of the firm.

Tech M&A firm rebranding for ICON Corporate Finance by Richard Chapman Studio, London

Web pages from our tech M&A firm rebranding project for ICON Corporate Finance

The digital dealroom

With the hard work of establishing a brand and its tools, namely logo, type graphics and colour use agreed, a practical application was the next job, and we began one of the most significant digital projects we’ve ever undertaken.

For ICON, when they’re talking business, the question is: get acquired, or get funded? These were the primary pathways into their new website. If that sounds pretty binary, get ready for an altogether more complex set of potential people to please. VC partners, PE executives, corporate development teams, emerging market entrepreneurs, all sitting anywhere from a Mayfair boardroom to a Silicon Valley pitch desk.

Our view was that ICON required a full brand that stopped you in your tracks, manifested online. Central to this process were two custom-made videos, for the landing section and about page, which was being created by our colleagues at Horse’s Mouth Media, so we worked around those anchors as a starting point.

Interestingly, with the hard decisions around the identity project made, every other stage of the process has felt like a logical progression, allowing us at times the most incredible creative free rein. At times the branding feels gutsy and avant garde. We’ve applied beautiful typography throughout, alongside animated vector graphics and vibrant backdrops which offer movement and life, while letting the information remain completely clear.

Elsewhere, especially on the ‘deals’ section, we’ve deliberately tacked close to the industry convention of showing the firms involved in tabular format. Yet, when a user moves to view the deal itself, an incredible mix of photography, clear type, maps and data offers a treasure trove of information.

It’s really satisfying to see the site architecture mirroring their deal process. Head to toe, across hundreds of pages, is systematic, highly sophisticated and results-focused. Each page has real impact, reinforcing their ‘maximum value’ expertise with visual credibility.

The impact has been immediate. As Alice explains: “The new website is an exceptional representation of who ICON is today and where we are going. Members of the team have commented just how proud they are to be a part of ICON as we appear on the site.”

“Richard and his team were excellent collaborators – they knew when to push our thinking and when to be patient as we came to terms with change.

“Knowing that Richard and his team understood the nuances of the financial services world meant we fully trusted them to accurately portray ICON’s position as an M&A and fundraising advisor. Decisions around appropriate ‘tombstone’ treatment, effective deal categorisation and clear presentation of ICON’s services were made a lot easier by the agency’s contextual knowledge of the industry.”

Alice Bradshaw-Smith
Head of Marketing, ICON Corporate Finance

Design as business strategy

The third major part of the ICON brand project was the sales deck. Easily as significant as the website in scope, some 65 different page designs needed bringing into line, some tremendously complex. Running through page after page of PowerPoint, it became clear that we couldn’t just redesign these, we needed a dialogue with the people who used them every day, to ensure the work we did wasn’t just a better design, but strengthened their sales mechanism.

It’s amazing sometimes when you ask a question like that, how a project fundamentally changes. Up til this point, everything we’d done for ICON had been working with Alan Bristow, the founder and Alice. Nobody else had seen anything of what we’d done. However, for this part of the project, ICON took an approach we’d never been allowed by a firm before. We were given free license to collaborate directly with the sales teams, in particular ICON director Florian Dempner, to understand not just what he and his colleagues needed, but how they operated.

Alice reflects on this collaborative approach: “They invested time to hear differing opinions from across the business to achieve the desired outcome and gain internal buy-in along the way.”

It sounds pretty simple really, obvious even. But it turns out that ‘sales’ doesn’t always sit easily with ‘marketing.’ The breaking down of these barriers meant that our new design pitch decks look fantastic while being highly branded muscular business development tools. The end result delivered a set of highly flexible pages carefully designed to support their ‘best possible deal’ positioning.

Example PowerPoint slides from our tech M&A firm rebranding project for ICON Corporate Finance

ICON’s unified brand

There’s a lot more to come as the new ICON brand unfolds, not least a set of HTML newsletter templates we’ve designed, print and signage. However this brand launch feels like a great point in time to pause and reflect on an incredibly satisfying piece of work. For me the most satisfying aspect of the work is the way each element we’ve delivered reinforces the other, in such a carefully considered, systemic way. A huge part of that is because of the fantastic collaboration and open dialogues we’ve had with the team at every stage.

It’s a point of real pride that ICON’s branding now holds up next to the business they’ve always been, offering the firms they work with value maximisation at a global standard. Each element of the work we’ve completed supports their positioning with a truly outstanding visual identity that works as hard as their deal team.

Web pages from our tech M&A firm rebranding project for ICON Corporate Finance

Interested in Tech/M&A rebranding for your firm?

Whether you’re working in a financial services business in San Francisco or Saudi Arabia (and anywhere in between), we can work on designs from the creative to the corporate, depending on your brief and budget.

Call us on +44 20 7351 4083 or email us direct.