Creative agency MadeBrave has shared insight into its two-year journey leading a comprehensive brand transformation for one of the UK’s largest transport providers.
The Glasgow-based agency, which has worked with First Bus for nearly eight years, was appointed in late 2022 to lead the strategic and creative development of the new identity. The rebrand officially launched in December and marks what the agency describes as not just a visual refresh, but a deeper business transformation.
“The past few months have been surreal, sitting back and watching a project you’ve worked on for two years come to life,” Mark Cullen, Head of Strategy at MadeBrave, said. “In December, First Bus, a transport giant and our client of nearly eight years, revealed a long-awaited brand refresh. And we were proudly at the helm.”
While brand work is nothing new for the agency, this project stood out for its depth, complexity and ambition.
“This hasn’t just been about the transformation of a brand, but of a company itself,” he added.
At the time MadeBrave was brought on board, the bus travel sector was facing intense pressure from long-term passenger decline and post-COVID behavioural shifts, to the prospect of major regulatory reform.
“This was a category undergoing not one, but several earthquakes all at once,” Mark said. “Bus travel had been in decline for decades, with COVID-19 permanently impacting the routines of millions more. And on the horizon, new governments were likely to franchise many bus services – the biggest sector shake-up in decades.”
Yet alongside the challenges, there were clear signs of progress.
“First Bus were investing big in a new electric fleet, app use and digital payments were opening up new generations, and city centres were pushing out cars and incentivising buses nationwide,” Mark said.
For MadeBrave, the task quickly evolved. What began as a branding brief became a strategic transformation challenge.
“The task then was not just an improvement of the identity, but for us to play a deeper role,” Mark said. “Not only a creative agency, but a true strategic business partner advising on how brand could play its role in the long-term transformation of a market leader.”
Central to the process was listening – not just to leadership, but to staff and passengers too.
“As with all good partnerships, it was built on listening. From the boardroom, to the bus depot, to the passengers themselves,” Mark said. “And the more they told us, the clearer it became that any refresh couldn’t just be a pig in lipstick. Real change was needed to services too.”
MadeBrave said First Bus embraced that challenge head-on, matching brand change with real business change.
“What’s been so striking about this project has been the attitude of their business to embracing change,” Mark said. “As we rebuilt the brand, they worked behind the scenes to get more of the basics right, diversify their business model and make huge operational investments for the future.”
The scale of the ambition meant a longer project timeline and plenty of hurdles to overcome.
“It meant the project lasted longer,” Mark said. “It meant we had to work twice as hard to bring their thousands of staff along with us. Even elections played a role in curving the ball a little.”
But the results, they say, speak for themselves.
“The output is a refreshed identity matched to a business walking the walk too. A brand as creatively strong as any in the design world, but also offering tangible proof points of change beneath the makeup. For passengers, for staff and for the climate too.”
Crucially, the public response has been warm and controversy-free – a rare feat in a category where changes are often met with scepticism.
“Where normally a brand refresh is met with the cynical naysayers and graphical critics, particularly in a category as charged as public transport, the positivity and numbers we’ve seen so far have been fantastic,” Mark added. “A smooth reveal with warm feedback, no controversy – and no wobble to the share price – is close to a slam-dunk.”
Reflecting on the project, MadeBrave said it shows what can be achieved when branding is seen not just as a cosmetic exercise, but as a driver of deeper business transformation.
“As our own industry faces its own earthquakes and disruption, maybe our future lies not just in branding, but something bigger,” Mark said. “Instead of always seeing branding through the prism of marketing and comms, we should think bigger and ask how a business needs to transform from the inside out first – and what role brand should then play in that.”
And for businesses, they suggest, there’s a lesson too.
“If you’re a company seeking change then consider taking a leaf out First Bus’ book by joining the dots between brand and business transformation from day one,” Mark said. “The results really can be transformational.”
