Behind the rebrand with CDP

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Hello Spark reader,

This week, we are lucky to share some behind-the-scenes insight into CDP’s recent rebrand from their Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Shannon Joly.

Last year, we worked closely with Shannon and her team to deliver a fresh new brand for CDP that its stakeholders (and the planet) could be proud of—one that does justice to their industry leadership as the the world’s most comprehensive disclosure data platform, renews their commitment to transparency, and creates a new call to action to rally around: Earth-positive.

Read more about why the rebrand was so important to CDP in working to bridge the gap between scientific trends and economic business action in Shannon’s article here.

-joel

Lessons on leading an Earth-Positive rebrand

A Q&A with Shannon Joly, CDP

What made you feel that CDP needed to reignite its brand?

CDP’s CEO, Sherry Madera spoke with me early on about the uniqueness of CDP – after almost 25 years of existing, CDP was lost and misunderstood within the very ecosystem it created. Vanguards create the environment but then have the responsibility to continually shape it.

The more I learned about CDP, the more I was convinced of its importance in the years ahead—not only in the path it originally forged. So, we needed to get the brand ready to climb new mountains.

What was of critical importance to you throughout the rebrand process?

Harness the spirit, don't break the magic of it.

What did it take to engage support for the rebrand internally at CDP?

A CEO who understands the strategic importance of a brand is a great starting point. Empowered to do the work, I needed to convince my peers at the Leadership table that this was important for our collective success and our impact in the world. I took them through "why now" and articulated a "from – to" journey to help us imagine CDP's moment in time.

CDP is full of brilliant minds. Many people didn't realize the science behind brand building – and the more they learned, the more they collectively supported the work.

Now that the brand is live, what are you most excited about?

The moment in the future when CDP's operations and value proposition deliver the full potential of the brand.

Something unique to the brand evolution is birthing a new term: Earth-positive. Why do that, and how has it been received? How do you plan to use it moving forward?

This term is everything. It came about because we were stuck at one point in the creative process, trying to define the scope of CDP's impact across climate, nature, biodiversity, plastics, and-the-list-goes-on. We realized we were boxing ourselves into the different taxonomies and categories that society has neatly defined – and escaping from those microcosms was freeing.

That said, not everyone loved it in the beginning. It was quite contentious amongst the scientists at CDP – because it didn't come from proven scientific research and vernacular. But we brought them in and defined it with them, and now it's part of our mindset and influence in the world.

Shannon Joly currently serves as the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at CDP, bringing over 15 years of leadership experience to the role. Prior to this, she held senior roles at Thomson Reuters, Refinitiv and LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), running global brand build programs and leading marketing activation teams to enhance and protect the brand while driving sustainable growth.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at [email protected]. 

Spark is a production of Vivace, a global B2B creative studio and consultancy that helps businesses drive meaningful brand and commercial impact. Get in touch if you’d like to chat with any of the team. Have a great week ahead.