Wolff Olins Overhauls The Economist Group’s Brand Architecture

Wolff Olins has created a rebrand for The Economist Group, introducing a fresh design approach that builds from the editorial integrity of their journalism, whilst differentiating the organisation’s non-journalistic offer.

Beyond journalism, The Economist Group spans executive education, data, research and forecasting, events, custom content and more. Despite operating separately from their journalism, the rapid growth of these services risked diluting The Economist’s editorial independence. The challenge was to bring clarity to the Group’s offer, without severing their link with The Economist. Yet this needed to be done in a way that didn’t undermine the independence of the iconic journalism brand.

Wolff Olins did this by creating a brand architecture and refreshed design system to bring clarity to The Economist Group’s B2B offers without detracting from their link to The Economist.

Identifying that all parts of the Group share The Economist’s commitment to progress, Wolff Olins built a brand architecture that allows all parts of the Group to communicate their role in driving it forwards. We did this by simplifying their portfolio down to four core brands: Economist Impact, Economist Intelligence, Economist Education and, of course, The Economist. These four brands are united under a shared mission and brand narrative, applying a shared set of experience principles (rigour, integrity, clarity and wit) to the way they serve their different audiences.

Wolff Olins’ rebrand allows The Economist Group to safeguard the editorial independence of The Economist while bolstering the growth of its pillar offers. Equipping each of their four core brands with their own value propositions and visual assets paves the way for the Group to continue its role in helping businesses, organisations and the world to pursue progress.

Kim Miller, chief marketing officer, The Economist Group said: “Wolff Olins was a true partner in our effort to drive change for our organisation. They deeply understood the DNA of The Economist, our unique businesses and the need to bring our brands to life in a different way. Input from our customers, clients and prospects was at the heart of this fantastic work.”