A heritage private bank with modern ambitions wasn’t showing up externally the way it felt internally. While employees spoke of strong values, leadership visibility, and close-knit teams, there were also challenges: a need for clearer inclusion efforts, mixed views on career growth, and high expectations without consistent support. Externally, the employer brand lacked visibility and risked appearing exclusive to clients but not inclusive to talent.
Our brief was to craft a brand that reflects their human-scale culture while balancing tradition with innovation, and exclusivity with inclusion.
We partnered with Arbuthnot Latham to uncover what really defines the employee experience. Using insights from leadership, personas, feedback and DEI data, we built a strategy rooted in reality.
We created a distinctive EVP and brand built on high standards, personal growth, and a culture where people feel seen and supported.
Four core pillars shaped the story:
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Integrity and Stability
Long-term thinking and accessible leadership -
Inclusive Culture and Wellbeing
Everyone treated as an individual -
Growth and Learning
Real responsibility, early on -
Relationships and Support
Collaboration and recognition at every level
A fresh tone of voice, visual identity and toolkit brought it all to life, inside and out.
The employer brand now walks the talk with a story that’s as clear and compelling as the culture behind it.
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A confident new EVP – high standards that lead to growth, a rallying cry for talent old and new
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A rich, flexible toolkit that brings the brand to life across careers pages, social, internal comms, and town halls
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Employees involved and inspired through validation sessions, town halls, and persona testing
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Leadership alignment unlocked, with shared language around what makes the culture special
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Consistent tone, sharper visuals, stronger first impression – the brand now feels as modern as its ambition
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Future-proofed for scale, with messaging that works across talent segments and career stages
The challenge
How 337 leaders unknowingly launched their own values.
After 20 years with the same values, Merlin Entertainments needed something exceptional for their new values launch.
We were rolling them out to 30,000 employees. Across 140 global attractions. In just 63 days. (Deep breaths, people.)
But the real challenge? We needed employees to feel ownership of values they were seeing for the first time.
The approach
Instead of telling employees about their values, we decided to let them tell us.
When 337 of Merlin’s leaders gathered in Gardaland, Italy, for what they thought was a regular conference, little did they know, they were about to become the stars of their own values launch.
Inspired by Derren Brown’s subliminal messaging technique, our team secretly planted the values throughout the venue. They were stuck on bus notices, coffee machines, and door hangers — hidden in plain sight. While leaders were in workshops, we listened to their conversations, wrote their words on giant Post-its, and placed them around the venue. We photographed them with whiteboards featuring their own quotes that perfectly embodied the new values.
For the grand finale, we showed a film that captured all these moments: their quotes, photos, and footage of them naturally embodying the values. The revelation? They’d been living them all along.
The results
- 96% rated it the “best leadership event” they’d ever attended
- +87 NPS for the event
- 1,200+ downloads of the first learning module
