APPLUS+

Brand Architecture Brand Strategy Internal Branding Naming Visual Identity

Beyond standards and borders

Agbar Automotive (a subsidiary of the Agbar Group) started its activity in 1996 in the vehicle certification and inspection sector. In 2003 it launched a comprehensive strategic plan that aimed to transform the subsidiary into a leader in global certification, and to make that happen, it needed to build a powerful international brand.

That is where Summa came in. We were there to build the Applus brand from the ground up, a brand that today symbolises the top mark anyone can attain in a test. We also designed its identity and defined the brand architecture; a monolithic model that enabled it to generate synergies and position itself as a multi-sector operator.

International growth

After more than 15 years of strong growth and acquiring numerous companies worldwide, Applus needed to review its brand strategy and align the organisations resulting from these acquisitions under a single culture. Once again, Applus came to us.

The challenge was to integrate a number of brands, well-established in their respective markets, under a more unified brand architecture that would allow the brands to coexist and evolve. It was also necessary to build a brand story that could be shared among all the Group’s subsidiaries and employees.

Open up to other targets and consumption moments

The new strategy opens the brand to new consumer profiles and moments, to make it evolve into other worlds beyond cinema and children, in accordance with the objectives set.

While consistent with its past, the brand is now more capable of meeting future challenges. Thus, it maintains innocence as its essence, but exploits people’s innate capacity to be surprised, whether we are children or adults and whether we are at the cinema or enjoying any other activity.

Creating a single internal culture

There’s no point in having a brand strategy if it’s not executed correctly. For this reason, we carried out an internal branding project at international level that would impact and align the entire organisation, laying the foundations for the brands’ integration and growth and to firmly establish Applus as a global player in the inspection and certification sector.

The revision of the strategy and brand narrative resulted in a slogan that is not only a statement of intent and value for customers and employees, but also refers to the company’s activity: Together beyond the standards.

An internationally recognised brand project

We designed a cross-cutting and multi-language internal campaign that would impact the entire organisation through different channels and materials. We carried out the empowerment of the team of brand ambassadors, generated teasers to awaken the organisation’s interest, produced brand clips, held events, and a variety of other actions.

The global branding project has allowed Applus to consolidate its position as a global benchmark and has received important awards such as the MarCom Award for Internal Communication in 2019 and 2020 and the Top Employers Awards 2019 and 2020.