Rebranding a National Giant - ADNOC Case Study

Rebranding a National Giant

Creating New Visual Flagship Branding to Align with a Top-Ten Energy Company’s Fresh Strategy

Challenge

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is a nation-defining brand that represents the backbone of Abu Dhabi’s global economic footprint and is ranked as one of the top ten energy companies in the world. In 2015, ADNOC was re-evaluating its corporate branding to align it with the company’s energy strategy under new leadership, while simultaneously constructing a new headquarters. MBLM partnered with the national oil giant to meet the challenge of restructuring and redefining their brand architecture and creating new visual flagship brand and wayfinding system for its headquarters.

After an extensive audit of the industry and interviews with ADNOC stakeholders, MBLM made exhaustive refinements to the brand’s identity based on insights revealed. We created a new, elegant brand that maintains the brand equity ADNOC had built over the decades while incorporating a fresh, modern tone to reflect the next chapter in the company’s leadership and direction. MBLM restructured the company’s brand architecture, propelling a new corporate branding program and visual flagship identity forward. To ensure that the brand would remain clear and consistent, we implemented BrandOS and trained ADNOC’s employees on how to use the brand management software, as well as how to implement the brand through the detailed guidelines and templates. For the new, 70-story headquarters, we defined a wayfinding system that unified the various offices, meeting rooms, hallways, elevators, parking garages, and lobbies under one sophisticated design system.

The result of our work was a comprehensive brand strategy and visual refinement that redefined the brand’s value proposition and showcased a new, forwarding looking approach

Results

ADNOC formally unveiled its new logo as part of the latest stage of the company’s corporate overhaul under the new leadership of UAE Minister of State Sultan Al Jaber as chief executive. In a statement by the oil company, which simultaneously announced its adoption of a renewed operation model and new overall corporate strategy, the new branding marked an “evolution into an organization focused on the future,” and that it was part of an effort to “align with a new strategic focus to ensure that ADNOC continues to be a competitive organization that is fit for the future.”

a helicopter with the ADNOC logo at the bottom, flying through a blue sky with propellers.
A desktop computer showing the design process of ADNOC logo
the before and after of Adnoc logo design
Examples of brand identity develop for ADNOC including brochure, letterhead, notepads, folders, business cards swag items and webpages
Examples of brand identity develop for ADNOC applied
A man with a tablet in his hands showing the website developed for ADNOC
A man with a mobile phone in his hands showing the website developed for ADNOC
a desktop computer showing the brand managing system developed for ADNOC with BrandOS
a laptop computer showing the brand managing system developed for ADNOC with BrandOS
a tablet displaying the brand management system developed for ADNOC with BrandOS
a tablet displaying the brand management system developed for ADNOC with BrandOS and a man working on a desktop computer using it
a desktop computer showing the website developed for ADNOC

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