How we have successfully rebranded to nmcn after 73 years

Rich Smith, responsible for the delivery of our rebrand, shares his thoughts on how we developed, launched and continue to grow our nmcn brand.

Where it began

In 2018, we recognised the need to bring the whole business, and all 1800 employees under one brand, working with the same purpose.

After almost 75 years, North Midland Construction and Nomenca had become established names within the industry. However, operating under multiple brands caused confusion amongst our stakeholders and also hampered internal collaboration across our business units.

Following agreement from the PLC Board that there was a need for a single defined, purpose-led brand, we held interactive briefings involving the whole of our business. These workshops which took place across the country defined the culture and purpose of our business. We defined our purpose; to have “a positive impact on everything we touch”.

We developed our brand identity using a small design agency who worked closely with us throughout the process and embraced our sketches as part of the process. Our final logo was designed late at night and had the concept name “engage”. Our new identity represents:

It was important that the brand launch was right and we dedicated a lot of time and effort to ensuring quality and accuracy in everything we did. We produced detailed brand guidelines which meant we fully considered all elements of the brand and also ensured our identity was well thought out and true to our organisation.

Whilst the design elements were some of my favourite parts of the project, it made for a very small proportion of the programme. The programme covered a very broad range of workstreams from our new website to office signage across our locations.

To launch the story behind our brand we produced an award winning explainer video which we first used internally across our business before then using it during our external launch.

In addition to the explainer video we developed a new website, transitioned to new social media accounts, rebranded our fleet and the signage on our offices. What was ultimately most important was to inspire the organisation to embrace the new brand and help take the company forward.

Our Positive Impact Plan

Part of the success of the rebrand has been growing our brand presence online through engaging and focused content which showcases our company purpose and values.

In March 2019 we developed our Positive Impact brand which was designed to fully underpin our purpose statement and encompass our sustainability plan. We wanted an engaging brand that brought colour and energy to our Positive Impact Plan and we maintained links to our core nmcn brand through the shapes and colours used.

Since it’s launch the Positive Impact Plan has really allowed us to bring out our company purpose and the engagement rates seen in our content reflect this.

For National Apprenticeship Week we created case studies, blogs, how to guides and featured on TV as well as the national press.

Thanks to the success of this week we received a record number of apprentice applications for our 2019 intake!

In May we put a spotlight on Mental Health during Mental Health Awareness Week with more Positive Impact content which saw excellent engagement rates.

June saw our first ever Positive Impact Week in which we showcased content around our work with

• charities
• schools
• prisons

To launch Our Impact priority in July we published our commitments but also ran a social media campaign engaging children in a recycling competition, getting them talking about sustainability. The competition saw Reece win and what good use he made of the prize!

In August we looked at how we could grow brand awareness in the communities we live and work in. The innovative social media partnerships with football clubs are seeing huge impressions and engagements on social media. An average matchday is seeing our nmcn graphics receive over 147k impressions and receive in the region of 26k engagements. It has also helped us to bring out some of the character of the brand with it being used in a different setting.

More recently in October we launched our Thinking Differently priority which saw us publish our first ever whitepaper. A first for the new brand but another example of our constant drive to move forward and develop.

Where are we now

Our rebrand has received fantastic feedback from the market in addition to the demonstrable success in traditional digital metrics.

Our website users, social media following and engagement stats continue to rise. Since March we have seen a complete transformation in how we are found online. People have moved almost completely away from North Midland Construction / Nomenca and now find us as nmcn.

Where are we going?

We have big things planned for 2020 and look forward to developing and growing our nmcn brand!

We are looking to do more of what has worked well for us through 2019 but have some exciting initiatives planned which will again see us look to innovate in order to develop our brand further!

To stay up to date please give us a follow across all of our social media channels @nmcnplc and engage with us wherever you can!