Nepa is more than an insights company — it’s a team of talented people that takes data and turns it into stories about human behaviour. Their personable and consultative service stretches across global teams — from Sweden to Mumbai. Nepa’s previous identity did not reflect the human, global, and innovative aspects of the business, and the team felt their brand needed refreshing. Fellow was engaged to take this brand into the future — a space that Nepa works in every day.

Initially, Fellow was engaged to design and develop Nepa’s new website. The dissatisfaction with the website design was clearly a brand challenge, and so Fellow ran two work streams in parallel. This approach allowed the design team to consider the brand holistically and develop an identity that empowered Nepa to communicate confidently and cohesively.

Research
Nepa has heavy-hitting competitors including Kantar, Nielsen, and IPSOS. Kantar and Nielsen especially, showcase their innovative approach to consumer insights through clean and modern design. As these competitors have significant services and offerings, it was key that Nepa’s refreshed identity stayed anchored in the human and personable experience that made them unique.

The brand wanted to bring clarity to their new identity, that they weren’t for just anyone. Nepa is the right choice for brave marketeers in emerging companies. The desired audience is those who need to make the right decisions, fast, needing Nepa’s dynamic marketing intelligence to improve communications and demonstrate ROI.

Exploration
Through workshops and stakeholder engagement, Fellow created three audience personas for Nepa. Based on these personas and further exploration, it became clear that ‘insight’ is core to what Nepa provides. This data can often come across cold, detached, and complex. The refreshed identity would need to change this perception and demonstrate the human story behind data. The creative would need to showcase Nepa’s global presence, highlight the team behind the work, and depict the transformational effects that data can bring—all in a way that felt refined, modern, and simple. The core idea of ‘Analytical Expression’ arose, to address how to express data in a way that feels more tangible and immersive.

Development
A geometric graphic language was informed by the Nepa logotype and symbol — enabling the brand to be expressed across a range of sizes and formats. The brand devices can work effectively on their own or integrated with photography.

Fellow needed to build upon pre-existing visual assets that already held a substantial amount of brand equity in order to revitalise the Nepa brand world. In order to achieve this, they worked alongside Nepa closely and collaboratively.

Looking at Nepa’s competitor landscape, the new brand refresh allowed Nepa to be seen alongside the big players in the industry. The new reductive and minimalist brand world created stand-out. Reflecting a fresh, human-centric brand that allows the business to grow without alienating the existing customer demographic.

Implementation
The client feedback has been that the work has more than delivered. The outcome is a streamlined, easy-to-use, and cohesive new brand — one that Nepa are confident will increase business leads.

When asked if the identity achieved what it set out to, Nepa responded:
“Absolutely. The project felt like a true collaboration, and everyone in the business was very engaged in the process. It will enable us to showcase our prospects exactly how we are as a company, help us create a coherent brand for clients (particularly those who work over different markets), and really join us together as a team.”

The design more than exceeded Nepa’s expectations. They felt their previous brand was not thought-through, and described it as a ’jumble of assets that had been collected over successive years’. The new brand look was recently launched at the ESOMAR Congress in Toronto and the project has received only good feedback from the Nepa team.